Socialist Fight Issue No. 6 Spring/Summer 2011 Price: Concessions: 50p, Waged: £2.00

Libya: Military United Front but no political support for Gaddafi against the assaults of Imperialism and its agents, the reactionary Benghazi rebels

Contents

Page 2: Editorial: The fight against the cuts and against Imperialism’s war on Libya is one struggle! Page 3: Why we need to build the Grassroots Left as a powerful rank -and-file movement in the trade unions, By Gerry Downing. Page 4: Build a Real Rank-and-File Movement independent of ALL TU bureaucrats!, By A J Byrne. Page 5: The struggle for the leadership of the anti-cuts movement, By A J Byrne. Page 6: Interview With West Belfast IRSP Candidate, Jim Gorman, By iskra1916. Page 8: IRPSG Page: Statement from Republican POWs, Maghaberry jail. Page 9: Where now for the left in Ireland – revolutionary struggle or reformist parliamentarianism? By A J Byrne. Page 10: The “Help for Heroes” campaign attempts to normalise and legitimise the acts of violence of the British Imperialist state By Charlie Walsh. Page 11: Political prisoners in India: An Overview, By Subhajyoti Ghosh Page 13: The Red Flags of Hope Still Fly on the Roof of the World, By Aggie McCallum. Page 14: Military United Front but no political support for Gaddafi against the assaults of Imperialism and its agents, the reactionary Benghazi rebels, Socialist Fight 18/3/2011. Page 20: The soft left’s foolish illusions in Benghazi’s rebels, By Ret Marut. Page 27: Lars T Lih, Kautsky, Lenin and the CPGB, By Ray Rising. Page 31: Imperialism and False Consciousness By Joshua Moufawad- Paul. Page 32: Libya: Pakistan left parties' statement on NATO attacks Page 33: Defend Bradley Manning, By Brighid Ó Duinn. Page 34: France topples Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire, By Mark Brown. Page 35: The COMMUNIST LEAGUE is born to build a revolutionary Trotskyist party that belongs to the working class! Page 36: Statement on Libya by the Communist League of Brazil and Socialist Fight of Britain 19 April 2011.

Socialist Fight is produced by the SF Editorial Board. Signed articles do not necessarily Contact: PO Box 59188, London, NW2 9LJ, [email protected] represent the views of the SF EB.

,đoàn kết là sức mạnh, Jedność jest siła اتحاد قدرت است ., ,Unity is strength, L'union fait la force, Es la unidad fuerza, Η ενότητα είναι δύναμη ykseys on kesto, યુનિટિ થ્રૂ .િા , Midnimo iyo waa awood, hundeb ydy chryfder, Einheit ist Stärke, एकता शक्ति, है единстве наша сила, vienybės jėga, الوحدة هو ,unità è la resistenza, 団結は力だ", A unidade é a força, eining er styrkur, De eenheid is de sterkte ,אחדות היא כוח ,bashkimi ben fuqine

!Ní neart go chur le céile, pagkakaisa ay kalakasan, jednota is síla, 일성은 이다 힘 힘, Workers of the World Unite ,القوة

Socialist Fight Page 2 The fight against the cuts and against Imperialism’s war on Libya is one struggle!

tary Steve Hart attempted to get him to vote for Editorial the cuts. In the end he abstained, much to the displeasure of our ‘left’ Regional Secretary. Six "Capital prowls the globe with a ravenous freedom ‘left’ Labour Councillors in Hackney, Barry Buite- it hasn't enjoyed since before World War I, operat- kant, Michelle Gregory, Linda Kelly, Deniz Oguz- ing free of friction, free of gravity. Will this mean kanli, Ian Rathbone, and Patrick Vernon signed a any better life for the multitudes...? 'By all means,' statement against the cuts. They would, “support a says Capital, offering another warmed-up version campaign to defeat the policies of this government of the 'trickle down' theory, the principle that the through public protest, opposition and defiance. poor, who must subsist on table scraps dropped by We would like to see local Councils across London the rich, can best be served by giving the rich big- leading the charge and refusing to adopt cuts ger meals." budgets as a result of government enforced poli- --William Blum, Killing Hope cies.” All voted for the cuts budget on 2nd March. Just to make sure that he did not whip the dem- onstrators into a revolutionary frenzy McCluskey Just to make sure that he did not whip the demon- strators into a revolutionary frenzy McCluskey had had Unite’s stewards sporting the Miliband slo- he capitalist crisis that began over two Unite’s stewards sporting the Miliband slogan gan “cuts too far too fast” on their hi viz vests. years ago is working its way through to “cuts too far too fast” on their hi viz vests. What the working class and poor. At the behest are the mobilising marching chants appropriate to Workers Power no one can even approximate to a of global finance capital capitalist govern- this inspiring idea; “An injury to one is an injury to revolutionary approach to this Imperialist war. The Tments across the globe are following up cuts in entire spectrum assumes that the Libyan rebels one and that’s all, and that’s all”, “cut some not all, wage and conditions with vicious attacks on the cut some not all” and, "cut their jobs, not our jobs, are or were in the beginning some type of revolu- post-war welfare states. But bankers, still arro- cut their jobs, not our jobs, do dah, dah do dah”? tionaries, part of a two stage ‘democratic revolu- gantly paying themselves huge bonuses, have But bureaucrats save their fiery speeches to hide a tion’ or ‘Arab Revolution’, that the main enemy to devastated the economies of the smaller nations, sell-out and no one is on the streets (page 5). this ‘democratic revolution’ was Gaddafi (or at Iceland, Greece and Ireland with Portugal next for least he was as bad as the rebels at the start, as But what of the left Trotskyist groups, surely they the chopping block. And they have gone to war the Spart family say). Therefore, as the first revolu- with Libya to rob another relatively prosperous are putting these bureaucrats under extreme tions were going so well in their first stage not pressure and thereby providing an alternative third world country like Iraq used to be, correctly dominated by anti-Imperialism and anti-Zionism, calculating this will draw the trade union bureau- mobilising focus which will force them to act? pro-Imperialism would do just fine for now in the crats even closer to them. And still the fightback is Unfortunately this is not the case either. As we say ‘Libyan Revolution’ for getting rid of Gaddafi; we on page 5, “In the current struggle for the leader- nothing like what is needed to defeat this attack. could leave socialism to a later stage. ship of the anti-cuts movement between the SWP, Back in 1938 Leon Trotsky pointed to the problems their right-wing split, Counterfire, and the Socialist Sarkozy jumps in the polls having imposed his man and tasks facing the world working class and poor Party the game is entirely about securing the pa- in a French coup in the Ivory Coast, Cameron will in fighting for its socialist future. The objective tronage of left trade union bureaucrats and re- defeat the anti-cuts movement all the more easily prerequisites for a socialist revolution were ripe, formist politicians who will ‘oppose’ the cuts, de- with the patriotic support of the TU bureaucrats he wrote, but warned in the opening sentence, nounce them viciously and passionately but none- and half-hearted soft left opposition to the war on “the world political situation as a whole is chiefly theless implement them in the end (or are imple- Libya. Opposing bombing whilst patriotically spon- characterized by a historical crisis of the leadership menting them now) rather than seek to mobilise soring the rebels is looking for Imperialist booty to of the proletariat” and later warned of “the oppor- their members and the mass of the working class protect British living standards and modify the tunist character of proletarian leadership: its petty itself to physically resist the cuts by strikes and worst aspects of the cuts by making the poor and bourgeois cowardice before the big bourgeoisie occupations.” oppressed of Libya and the entire semi-colonial and its perfidious connection with it even in its worlds pay — “cut their welfare, not our welfare”. death agony”. He concluded his introduction by We therefore counterpose to this race to secure the allegiances of these fake left trade union bu- Look at William Blum’s quote on the top of this the observation that “the historical crisis of man- piece. Now think of how this monster is to be slain. kind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary reaucrats the tactic of building rank-and-file bodies in the trade unions to fight the bureaucracy and Look at the three people on the headline strap of leadership”. Unless revolutionaries seriously tackle the Coalition of Resistance’s handout on the the struggle against the TU bureaucracy and their mobilise the grassroots. On May 6th the Grass Roots Left will hold its founding conference pre- March 26th demo. How could Tony Benn, a re- parliamentary expression, the Labour parties inter- formist politician, totally hostile to revolutionary nationally, we cannot solve the question of build- cisely to fight for that perspective. politics, how could Caroline Lucas, an MP of the ing a revolutionary leadership for the class. But we cannot fight this global crisis alone in Brit- bourgeois Greens or arch bureaucrat Len We have explained on page 4 how Unite General ain. And it is becoming clearer that not only are McCluskey lead the fight against the cuts and this our ‘revolutionary Trotskyists’ not able to fight the Secretary Len McCluskey makes big bluster against assault by global finance capital here or in foreign trade union bureaucracy at home but most are the cuts whilst arranging behind the scenes to wars? Asking the question is answering it. implement them. At a meeting with about fifty of unable to oppose its foreign wars in any consistent way whilst some give them outright support. Look The degeneration of the left is apparent in its its Councillors, including Council leaders and La- failure to fight the TU bureaucracy on the cuts and bour group leaders, on 12 November in Leeds he at Charlie Walsh’s anti-Imperialist letter on page 9. the attack on Libya. We need a new international- got Gail Cartmell to instruct them to carry out all How many of our ‘revolutionaries’ can take such a stance against the British army and their own ist revolutionary party to fight this crisis. Socialist the cuts by setting legal budgets whilst hypocriti- Fight is dedicated to this fight. We have lost many cally protesting. In Lambeth wild rumours began to bourgeoisie and its foreign Imperialist adventures? friends and allies because this crisis has forced circulate that ONE Labour Councillor, Kingsley Look at the sorry tale outlined in The soft left’s their politics into the open. However we are Abrams, was intending to vote against the cuts. foolish illusions in Benghazi’s rebels on page 20. pleased to say that we have found new and better Such was the determination of Unite that no strug- From the far right of the spectrum, the AWL (of comrades in Britain, South Africa and Brazil who gle against the cuts at all (other than puerile pro- course) followed closely by the USFI/Socialist we are confident will not buckle under the current tests) should manifest itself that Regional Secre- Resistance, the SWP, the SP, Socialist Appeal and ideological assault of neo-liberal Imperialism.

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 3 Why we need to build the Grassroots Left as a powerful rank-and- file movement in the trade unions By Gerry Downing

had the use of an £800,000 grace-and-favour Class Struggle house owned by the union in Hertfordshire.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ uknews/4903243/Derek-Simpson-Unite-union- e can do no better that read boss-stays-in-luxury-hotel-suite.html Brian Pearce’s article Some Past Rank-and-File Movements, I believe this makes the case for a rank-and-file (1959) http://www.marxists.org/ movement better than any propaganda I can Warchive/pearce/1959/04/rankandfile.htm in produce. particular the following passages: It is necessary to reject what is called the syndi- “To the epoch of ‘defence, not defiance’ corre- calist version of the rank-and-file where a group sponded the emergence of a generation of trade seeks to educate, mobilise and agitate for indus- union leaders of a different type from those who trial action whilst not standing for any union had laid the foundations in the bitter days of the position at all on the basis that power always Combination Acts and Tolpuddle. It was between corrupts. This outlook results in a division of these ‘sober, business-like’ men and sections of labour, the bureaucrat is safe in his office and the capitalist class that the political alliance was the rank-and-filers mobilise the members when Alex Snowdon: “Radical redistribution of wealth forged which, in different forms and phases, has necessary as an adjunct to the bureaucrat, whilst is therefore needed. The scale of inequality is been with us ever since – “the bourgeoisie can- bitterly criticising the corruption of the bureau- itself related to a series of (Tory then Labour) not rule alone”…These trade union leaders saw crats in their propaganda. An example of this is government policies.” This reformist outlook their task as essentially one of peaceful negotia- the Counterfire introduction to the Brian Pearce leads him to contradict the revolutionary rank tion with the employers, and this gave rise to a article Some Past Rank-and-File Movements by and file perspective in Pearce’s article and try to whole network of social relations separating Alex Snowdon in which he attempts to make the smuggle in reliance on the left bureaucracy; a them off from their original class. Assured of a article mean the exact opposite of what it does. totally incorrect counterposition between the permanent position with a secure income, the His opening sentence is: ranks and “left-wing and right-wing candidates”. trade union officials – ‘a closely combined and "There are two basic divisions inside the trade “(We) should always strive not only to renew the practically irresistible bureaucracy’, as the unions. One is the division between left and right top leadership of the trade unions, boldly and Webbs called them in their book Industrial De- - including contests between left-wing and right- resolutely in critical moments advancing new mocracy which Lenin translated while in exile in wing candidates for leading positions in the militant leaders in place of routine functionaries Siberia – soon found their different life- unions. The other division is between the bu- and careerists; but also to create in all possible experience reflected in a different outlook on the reaucracy and the grassroots members”. class struggle. In the Webbs’ History of Trade instances independent militant organisations This completely contradicts the whole purpose Unionism the account of the career of a typical corresponding more closely to the problems of of Pearce's piece. As if there were two separate official given to the authors in 1893 by a member mass struggle in bourgeois society.” and unconnected compartments of the class of one of the great craft unions is quoted: Trotsky was not talking about acting as a struggle; the battle between left and right in the “counterweight” against “a tendency to sell Whilst the points at issue no longer affect his trade unions and the battle for the soul of the them short” by the bureaucracy, a ginger group own earnings or conditions of employment, any rank and file. This ‘left’ he is referring must of good democrats but building a fighting cur- disputes between his members and their employ- therefore be a bureaucratic anti-rank and file rent in the trade unions to defeat the bureau- ers increase his work and add to his worry. The left. And Pearce’s article points out precisely crats and oust them and replace them by rank- former vivid sense of the privations and subjec- that; the treachery of the left trade union bu- and-file leaders who are answerable to the rank- tion of the artisan’s life gradually fades from his reaucracy. What happened to Marx: “The eman- and-file group. mind; and he begins more and more to regard all cipation of the working classes must be con- complaints as perverse and unreasonable. quered by the working classes themselves. The Of course we will critically support left candi- The Daily Telegraph reported the following in struggle for the emancipation of the working dates who are not our members on the basis of March 2009: class means not a struggle for class privileges the united front tactic against the right bureau- and monopolies but for equal rights and duties crats. This is because such candidate talk more “Derek Simpson, 64, the joint leader of Unite a and the abolition of all class rule” (The Interna- left, proclaim to be on the side of the workers close political ally of the Prime Minister, has tional Workingmen's Association 1864, General more than the pro-boss right bureaucrats and it spent several nights at the five-star Waldorf Rules). Is not the Introduction simply a rational is necessary for the ranks to learn about these in Hilton hotel in London - 600 yards from his office. for his support for the left bureaucrat McCluskey the practice of the class struggle. For instance if The union has defended Mr Simpson's use of the against the rank-and-file candidate Jerry Hicks? Jerry Hicks was not standing in the last Unite hotel, saying that its performance would be election it would have been correct to support Then says: undermined if "the union prioritised cheapness of Len McCluskey, despite his fake leftism and accommodation above appropriate facilities and “This doesn't mean abandoning trade unions as hypocrisy because, whilst we may understand location". It comes at a critical time for Mr Simp- mass organisations; nor does it involve com- this well, the ordinary membership do not and son. Members of Unite will vote next week on pletely ignoring the often important left-right will not until they begin to struggle themselves whether he should win re-election as leader of contests at the top of the unions. It's about build- in strike actions, occupations etc. the Amicus half of the union. Mr Simpson has ing the independent strength of grassroots mem- So it is not a question of electing better leaders been heavily critical of "fat-cat" bankers, such as bers as a counterweight to the bureaucracy's but of mobilising the ranks to fight for their own Sir Fred Goodwin, the former Royal Bank of Scot- tendency to sell them short” (emphasis added). land chief executive. Since 2003, Mr Simpson has interests by defeating ALL their bureaucratic But then he goes on to quote Trotsky who says opponents within the trade unions leaderships. the complete opposite:

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 4 Build a Real Rank-and-File Movement independent of ALL TU bureaucrats! By A J Byrne

espite all its protestations the National He praised Ed Miliband for “drawing a line under Shop Stewards Network was never a the party’s Blairite past”, but called for a clearer real rank-and-file body. It was always dividing line between Labour and the government an adjunct to the left trade union based on a “positive growth and tax justice pro- Dbureaucracy. Its founding principles made it clear gramme” to tackle the deficit. A key part *of the that it sought no political or organisational inde- alternative] must be a rejection of the need for pendence from them but wanted as many Gen- cuts. ‘What do we want? Fewer cuts later on’, is eral Secretaries on board as possible—there were not a slogan to set the blood coursing.” six originally and it is now sponsored by the RMT, McCluskey said the TUC’s national demonstration PCS, CWU, NUM and POA. That was the meaning on 26 March would be a “critical landmark” in the of point 2 of its ‘founding basis’ (2006) only, campaign against the government’s plans”. “bona fide rank and file TUC affiliated trade union workplace representatives” could be members— But behind the bluster and rhetoric from no place for rank and file workers or victimised McCluskey, designed to pose an alternative to the opponents of the bureaucracy. TUC’s craven capitulation, here is what he is really planning behind the scenes. In this report from Gail Cartmell; "Gail Cartmell was the main union And point 3 was humiliating in its kow-tow: “It Unite's meeting with its Councillors Gail Cartmell speaker and I must say I was surprised in just would not encroach on the established organisa- (new career for one failed Gen Sec candidate) tion and recruitment activity or interfere in the how strong the "toe the line" message was but it instructed them to carry out all the cuts by set- internal affairs and elections of TUC affiliated went down very well with those at the meeting!" ting legal budgets whilst hypocritically protesting. trade unions or the functions of the TUC”. They liked it: The Socialist Party has decided to use the vehicle tax”. This is a bogus long term Keynesian strategy “I was at a UNITE Cllrs network meeting on 12th of the NSSN to launch its own All Britain Anti-Cuts in defence of ‘mismanaged’ capitalism. Right now Nov and there was about 50 Cllrs present includ- Campaign, so forcing a split, whilst correctly ex- there is no alternative apparently because that ing a number of council Leaders and Labour posing the hypocrisy of those Labour Councillors would mean not setting legal budgets and en- Group Leaders etc. At this meeting it was made and their apologists who protest but make the couraging strikes and occupations which might very clear that UNITE does not expect or support cuts nonetheless. So it is apposite to examine threaten the future of capitalism! illegal budgets this time round. It was also made their own hypocrisy. clear that Cllrs should implement the cuts but “We have to put people before profit. The Peo- In the first place they complain about the lack of what was expected was that they would involve ple's Charter has demands about a fairer tax democracy in the CoR Conference whilst running the unions (all of them) to try and mitigate the system and spells out alternatives. We need to an annual NSSN Conference themselves which effects. What UNITE along with the Labour Party arm our members and members of the general was just as undemocratic. And whilst criticising would do is continue to campaign against the public so that they understand that there is an the Labour Councillors who are making the cuts cuts. It was made very clear to the "top table" alternative.” He says. whilst protesting they are apparently too politi- that we need a clear message re the cuts from the The People's Charter makes no demands on un- cally naive to see through the division of labour Party and the union agreed to work on this includ- ion leaders to resist any cuts right now but banks performed by Len McCluskey who is doing the ing at the NPF. everything on the illusory parliamentary road to exact same thing whilst hypocritically protesting "Gail Cartmell was the main union speaker and I socialism, and getting a Left Labour Government the opposite (see below). We must set ourselves must say I was surprised in just how strong the elected sometime in the distant future which will the task of building a real rank-and-file opposition "toe the line" message was but it went down very put back what has already been taken! In reality if now beginning in Unite and then in all other well with those at the meeting!" these cuts succeed then Cameron will be re- unions. elected with a massive majority as the middle In an interview with The Socialist on 1 December, class recognise ‘reality’ and blame the working Unions warn of massive wave of after his rousing anti-cuts speech at the Coalition class for making matters worse by uncoordinated of Resistance on 27 November Len set out his strikes (but not if they can help it!) resistance and 1979-style discontented Winters. vision of the road forward: Unite general secretary Len McCluskey vows to Len McCluskey’s task, and that of all TU bureauc- work with students to fight government’s auster- “We've been told for over 15 months now that racats, is to ensure that any resistance is uncoor- ity agenda” headlined Matthew Taylor in guard- there is no alternative to the cuts. At the last dinated. Now is the time for a rank-and-file ian.co.uk, Sunday 19 December 2010 (http:// general election the three major parties put for- movement independent of ALL TU bureaucrats! coalitionofresistance-leeds.org.uk/?p=259). And ward a cuts agenda. So at the mo- he finished: ment ordinary working people feel that, although they don't want these Grass Roots Left Supporters Conference “Unite has signed up to the Coalition of Resis- cuts, they are being forced into believ- tance campaign group which brings together ing that there's not really anything we 11.30 to 4pm unions with local anti-cuts campaigns across the can do about it, we've got to accept country, he said, adding that the challenge was the cuts. Our task is to reject Room 3E, University of London Union, now to persuade people that there is an alterna- the cuts - not only because they're tive to the cuts. morally wrong and economically Malet Street, London WC1. ”Unless people are convinced not just that they dangerous, that's not good enough. are hurting – not hard to do – but also that there We can't just sloganise against the is a coherent alternative to the Cameron-Clegg cuts, we have to explain that there is WWW.grassrootsleft.org email, jerry- class-war austerity, then getting millions into an alternative.” [email protected], tel 0781 782 7912 action will remain a pipe dream.” But this ‘alternative’ is only “economic growth and dealing with

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 5 The struggle for the leadership of the anti-cuts movement By A J Byrne SF Flyer 4 February 2011

n the current struggle for the leadership of Brother Moorky knows what side his bread the anti-cuts movement between the SWP, is buttered on in ‘getting on’ up the greasy their right-wing split, Counterfire, and the poll of the bureaucracy. Socialist Party the game is entirely about Jimmy Kelly exited the SWP as a conse- Isecuring the patronage of left trade union bu- quence of the Belfast Airport affair. He reaucrats and reformist politicians who will actually sought to jail SP member Gordon ‘oppose’ the cuts, denounce them viciously and McNeil (twice) after he fought on when an passionately but nonetheless implement them Industrial Tribunal found these shop stew- in the end (or are implementing them now) ards and union members were sacked in rather than seek to mobilise their members and collaboration with the TGWU bureaucrats. the mass of the working class itself to physically Here is the account from April 2008: resist the cuts by strikes and occupations. The SWP leadership now understand they were “The SP’s Gordon McNeill stated “Jimmy outmanoeuvred for the allegiance of the RMT Kelly attacked Margaret Thatcher for refus- left bureaucracy by the SP in the NSSN split. Ian ing negotiations with the H-block hunger- Allison explain their desperate volte face thus: strikers in the 80s, but today he refuses to talk with members of the union who have “As I think most of you are already aware, been forced to go on hunger-strike to get though the SWP members who were NSSN offi- justice. We were sacked after a union offi- cers resigned, the rest of the SWP members on SIPTU president Jack O’Connor: “The more trade un- cial, with the support of the leadership, the Steering Committee are intending to go to repudiated our strike action in 2002 at a ion leaders capitulated and accommodated to the the next meeting to push the unity argument secret meeting with our former employers. demands of the Government and employers the more once again. I know that not everyone will agree The union seems happy enough to talk to militant they sounded.” with this approach, but we have decided this is the employers, but won’t talk to its mem- better to keep the focus on the core issues and bers”. Issued on behalf of Gordon McNeill, Ma- operate with implementation of the Croke Park not allow the SP to distract it into something dan Gupta and Chris Bowyer.” Agreement, despite members voting to reject about the SWP as they tried to do in December.” it… it was decided that Unite would enter the We can be certain that the SP members did not We have detailed the hypocrisy of Unite Gen- implementation process to protect its members head many H-blocs hunger-strike committee. eral Secretary Len McCluskey who talks a very from any victimisation that might occur. Re- They certainly downplayed this conflict forced fighting opposition to the cuts whilst organising gional Secretary Jimmy Kelly warned that mem- on them by the intransigence of the victimised Labour Councils to make sure that these very bers would expect to see reimbursement of pay workers. same cuts are successfully imposed by the set- cuts commencing early next year.” ting of legal budgets. But let us look at just how This is how Socialist Democracy in Ireland de- Indeed. And pigs might fly! Jimmy Kelly is now far these defenders of capitalist intuitions and scribes how the big unions secured the accep- calling for a general strike in the indefinite fu- ‘stability’ are prepared to go to ensure their tance of the Croke Park Agreement: ture to oppose the cuts he has decided to imple- own place in the status quo. “The approach of trade union leaders is epito- ment now. The SWP, endorse his reformist Two of the speakers at the People’s Convention mised by SIPTU president Jack O’Connor. Initially Keynesian alternative strategy and two-faced are former SWP members. They are Jimmy not publically committing himself either way, he dodges by reporting it without a comment: Kelly, the Secretary of Unite the Union in Ireland gradually built up the arguments for accep- “The Unite trade union has proposed a general and Jane Loftus, CWU President. Both made tance, until he and the SPITU executive made a strike in opposition to the Government’s eco- their exits from the SWP in Ireland and Britain formal endorsement of Croke Park, and then nomic programme and in support of an alterna- under differing circumstances but basically to became its most enthusiastic supporters. Jack tive strategy. The union has also proposed a advance their own careers in the union bureauc- O’Connor made a series of firebrand speeches at campaign of civil disobedience including the non racies. public events denouncing the Government’s -payment of any water or property taxes intro- economic policies, yet at the same time urging The difficulty is that the SWP has a leftist mem- duced in the forthcoming budget. Irish regional support for them. The more trade union leaders bership, suspicious and distrustful of their own secretary Jimmy Kelly said the union would be capitulated and accommodated to the demands leadership after the Respect fiasco. An internal putting its proposals for national strike to the of the Government and employers the more SWP revolt forced them to support Jerry Hicks in Irish Congress of Trade Unions in the weeks militant they sounded.” the Unite Gen Sec election after a year’s vacilla- ahead.” tion. This got them into serious trouble with the The left bureaucracy is just a bit cleverer than The SP have an almost totally compliant mem- bureaucrat’s front, the United Left and career the right in Ireland and Britain but Kelly and bership if we ignore the odd cloud of doubt that prospects for aspiring SWP bureaucrats were McCluskey arrived at the same place as the right passes over the faces of leftists like Rob Wil- dimmed. This post in the Socialist Unity blog in the end. On the 28 May 2010 the 6,000 public liams and others when a particularly nasty piece shows the dilemma of the SWP leadership: sector members of Unite in the public service in of chicanery is imposed, like the forced split in Ireland voted to reject the Croke Park deal fol- “It’s funny really because I became very close to the NSSN on the 22 January. lowing the recommendation of Jimmy Kelly. But joining them not so long ago until I was advised the votes of big unions, Impact and SIPTU, Jane Loftus, when a member of the SWP in that being an SWP member would do me more forced through the deal. But on 28 June Irish November 5 2009, voted to accept the interim harm than good if I were to get on in Unite. So I television reported: Unite to co-operate with agreement which call off the strikes just as have decided to channel my leftism into the Croke Park deal: popular support and the confidence of the un- Labour Party which is something that every ion membership was growing; support commit- trade unionist should think seriously about.” “The Unite trade union, which represents 6,000 tees were mushrooming as the left relished a Comment by Moorky — 12 June, 2010. workers in the public service, has decided to co-

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 6

real chance to fight the system. She was forced waiting for an injunction! to resign from the SWP under pressure from an And Billy Hayes and ex- outraged membership as a result. But she was SWPer Jane Loftus, CWU invited to the platform by the SWP leadership, Gen Sec and President, are thus implicitly portraying her action as under- still touring the left circuses standable. The SP, who have a much worse masquerading as part of an record of capitulation to the left bureaucracy anti-cuts and privatisation because of its docile membership, backed this opposition! same sell-out deal, which open the door to The CoR has no pretence at complete privatisation, with these lame ex- internal democracy so is a cuses: most fruitful arena for re- “But once they had a chance of looking at what formist demagogs like Tony was achieved by their mass strike action, many Benn whose bottom line is of the workers have drawn the conclusion that the parliamentary road to the deal (unanimously agreed it seems by the socialism with the working elected postal executive committee) does allow class as a stage army whose The CWU are now proposing to accept privatisation because it is the CWU to regain some element of trade union only role is to get another “illegal” to strike against it and will only seek to modify some of the control in the workplace and therefore does Labour governments worst excesses of the deal afterwards. push back the attacks of the bosses. One local elected. Reformists like CWU leader in the South West wrote to his Benn, McDonnell and Cor- overthrow it, which possibility we are now see- members: "We have forced a vicious employer byn, however sincere, will never do or advocate ing in Egypt. So reformist and bureaucrats seek back to the table". anything to threaten capitalism or damage ‘the to portray revolutionaries as ‘troublemakers’ economy’. The CWU are now proposing to accept privatisa- who will undermine all this by seeking to con- tion because it is “illegal” to strike against it and Because if socialism can organically develop duct the class struggle through to the over- will only seek to mollify some of the worst ex- from capitalism it follows that this capitalism throw of capitalism itself. cesses of the deal afterwards. RMT Gen Sec Bob must be thriving and successful before it can Occupy and strike to defeat the cuts! Crow regularly accepts outrageous court injunc- deliver a really decent ‘welfare state’ - “Labour tions against strikes. He even curbed his militant governments always run out of money” oppo- Develop the local anti-cuts campaign into a real members by calling off a strike due for 4 Febru- nents say, i.e. they are always tied to capitalism united democratic national campaign! ary 2011 by RMT members at Arriva Trains itself. Serious revolutionaries know that crisis is Build a real revolutionary internationalist social- Wales following legal advice on the “changing endemic to capitalism and in order to achieve ist party! nature of the anti-trade union laws” - not even socialism we must mobilise the whole class to

Socialist Fight is happy to reprint this interview because we feel that the IRSP has made big developments in Interview with recent years, that crucially it both rejects the Good Friday Agreement and is dedicated to mobilising the work- ing class on a political and revolutionary socialist basis; “the class struggle and national liberation struggle West Belfast cannot be separated” as Jim says below. Of course, as Trotskyists, we have big political differences, for in- stance we think that the politics of “Wolfe Tone, Marx, Lenin, Connolly, Mellows, Costello and Ta Power” are contradictory and the list ignores theoretical lessons of the prodigious struggles of Leon Trotsky in co-leading IRSP Candidate, the Russian Revolution and defending its heritage until his assassination in 1940 by Stalin’s agent. Nonetheless we extend out warmest solidarity to the comrades in struggle and will continue to fight for politi- Jim Gorman cal status for their and all republican prisoners via the Irish Republican Prisoners Support Group as a commu- By iskra1916 nist obligation despite political differences we have with the IRSP and differences on politics and the method of struggle with other heroic republicans fighters.

Jim Gorman is one of 5 Irish Republican Social- and campaigns, took time out from his busy the type that liberates all working class people. ist Party (IRSP) candidates who are standing in schedule, which now includes canvassing, meet- Iskra: What makes the IRSP different from other the local council elections on May 5th, 2011. In ings and essential party work, to give this short contemporary Irish Republican parties? Derry city, Lucy Callaghan is standing in North- but exclusive interview. This will be the first land and Martin McMonagle in Shantallow. In time in 30 years that the IRSP have contested Jim Gorman: The party is guided by the analysis Strabane, in West Tyrone, the IRSP candidate is local council elections in the North of Ireland, of Ireland's first revolutionary Republican Social- local community worker, Paul Gallagher. In the last time the party fielded candidates was ist, James Connolly. We believe that the class Belfast, Paul Little is standing in the North of during the 1981 H-Block Hunger Strike, when struggle and national liberation struggle cannot the city and Jim Gorman is standing in the West. the party won two seats on Belfast City Council be separated. Unlike other Irish Republican The specific electoral area that Mr Gorman will and came tantalisingly close to gaining a third. parties, we are the only party that upholds Con- nolly's scientific socialist analysis. be seeking to represent is known, officially, as Iskra: What is the core ideological standpoint of 'Lower Falls' which includes the 'wards' of: the Irish Republican Socialist Party? Iskra: As the first IRSP candidate to stand in local elections in Belfast for 30 years, does this Whiterock 1. Jim Gorman: We are a working class revolution- mean that the party has embraced electoral ary party in the tradition of Wolfe Tone, Marx, Upper Springfield politics? 2. Lenin, Connolly, Mellows, Costello and Ta 3. Beechmount Power. The 'Ta Power' document is at the heart Jim Gorman: No, the IRSP does not believe that of the IRSP's politics. there is any parliamentary road to Socialism. We 4. Clonard know the limitations of the bourgeois electoral Iskra: What are the objectives of the IRSP? 5. Falls. system, the IRSP is an anti-Imperialist Party that Jim Gorman: Our prime objective is to work seeks to remove British Imperialist interference Jim, who has a young family and is deeply in- towards a united, 32 county Democratic Social- in Ireland's sovereignty, as an aspect of the volved with a whole range of community groups ist Ireland. The Socialism that we believe in is wider class struggle. However, the working class

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 7

people of West Belfast deserve principled Re- of Ireland but it's access to essential services elections and elections per se, however, even publican Socialist representatives who will not such as health provision, is rated as one of the the greatest of journeys begins with one small desert them to enter the professional political worst. These near 'Dickensian' figures are a step. 'caste.' The IRSP decided to stand candidates in disgrace in the year 2011 and the people of Iskra: On a personal level, how has the election the local council elections, partly due to pres- West Belfast deserve better. campaign been for you? sure from our support base in various areas of Iskra: How is the IRSP's local election campaign the North of Ireland Jim Gorman: Well, as the father of a young progressing? family, the elections have been a challenge - but Iskra: Are the IRSP campaigning on the same Jim Gorman: I will be the first to admit that a challenge I am well up for and it is brilliant issues as they did in 1981? personally and as a party, this has been a sharp that I have my family's full support! Even the Jim Gorman: In 1981, the IRSP were at the fore- learning curve but it has been a fantastic experi- youth football team who I coach are delighted front of the H-Block campaign and we champi- ence not least due to the encouragement that I that I am standing in the elections. I have got a oned the rights of political prisoners to be have received from party colleagues and of great response from first time voters, an 18 treated as such. During the 1981 Hunger year old who knows of my coaching work Strike, three of those ten brave men who stopped one of our party canvassers the gave their lives on Hunger Strike, Patsy other night and said "when Jim gets O'Hara, Kevin Lynch and Mickey Devine, elected, he can represent us young people were Irish Republican Socialists. In 2011 we too - he will be like our voice!" With sup- still stand squarely behind Irish Republican port like that and incentives like that, I am prisoners. convinced that I am doing the right thing. Iskra: Do you think you will be elected in Iskra: Just to finish off this interview, which the council electoral area, known as 'Lower political figure inspires you most? Falls?' Jim Gorman: The response that I have Jim Gorman: It would have to be the late, received in West Belfast has been very, great Seamus Costello, who was an out- very encouraging and I have every reason standing Irish Republican Socialist activist to believe that come the polls, on May 5th, and the IRSP's co-founder. Seamus would I will have the privilege of representing the have been the model for any revolutionary people of West Belfast in the city council socialist activist and we will not see his chamber. Don't forget, the IRSP through- likes again. Seamus knew the limitations of out the years have had such a close a rela- bourgeois elections but he viewed them as tionship with the working class people of an important tactic and a means to an end, one of the districts that I will be standing as I recall, he famously said: in, Divis, that it was once colloquially re- "I favour guerrilla tactics in parliament ferred to as 'the planet of the Irps!' People the same as I do in other respects. I favour in the area know that the IRSP will never them in local elections and local govern- desert them! ment bodies, they've proved successful Iskra: What are the most pressing issues there. And I see no reason, why, with a that effect the area you are a prospective few TDs or MPs, of the right calibre, pur- councillor for? suing the right policies, why they cannot destroy the confidence of the people Jim Gorman: In short, poverty, unemploy- within these institutions and bring them ment and lack of opportunities - West tumbling down in ruins." Belfast has been used and For example, in the Beechmount ward, 64% of the residents left Seamus Costello laid the foundation stones course, our supporters in West Belfast. Local school with no qualifications and nearly half of of the Irish Republican Socialist Party in 1974 people know the IRSP and they know our his- the unemployed are classed as 'long-term' un- and now, all these years later, in 2011, the IRSP tory of championing the rights of Irish working employed! In the same area, nearly 3000 kids continues to owe it's allegiance to, and seeks to class people. We have received very, very posi- are growing up in homes where income support represent, the Irish working class. tive feedback from local voters and I am quietly is the only money coming in. Similar figures Iskra: Many thanks, Jim, for taking time from confident that we will see the beginning of a accompany the Clonard, Whiterock, Upper your busy schedule - good luck on May 5th! change in the make-up of local councils come Springfield and Falls wards, in fact Whiterock is May 5th. As a party we are firmly rooted in © Iskra 7th April 2011 rated as the most 'deprived' ward in the North reality, so we know the limitations of council Bloody Sunday March in Derry after decades of false accusations against them march, so obviously it’s Sinn Féin who are stop- by the British Army and Government. ping the march – I don’t know the reasons for will NOT be the last The move has caused consternation among that, so I can’t answer that question. The only Omayr Ghani reports that other republicans some relatives of the victims such as Liam, people it would serve is the British Government will continue the event. brother of the murdered Jim Wray, who de- because it’s an annual reminder of the atrocities Ceasefire blog: http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/ clared “For as long as there’s breath in my body, they committed in Ireland.” category/politics/irish-times/ I hope that I will be marching to remember those Thus the idea put forward by Sinn Fein that killed on Bloody Sunday. It doesn’t matter there is no longer any reason to mark the events inn Fein and families of the victims of whether there are 10 or 10,000 marchers in of Bloody Sunday rings hollow and subsequent Bloody Sunday decided that the 39th future; it’s the principle.” Kate Nash, sister of anniversaries are likely increase tension be- anniversary march on January 30 would another victim asserted the decision to end the tween them and independent republicans (as be the last due to the recent publishing march “was dropped on us like a ton of bricks, currently happens with Anti-Internment bonfires

Sof the Saville Report which cleared all 14 men completely unexpectedly. Who decided the that Sinn Fein now oppose) who will continue to murdered by British Paratroopers of wrongdoing march should end and why? Sinn Féin runs the march on 30 January.

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 8

Irish Republican Prisoners Support before, which resulted in a dirty protest. Eventually yard. Group page: Statement from Repub- with the support of our friends, family and comrades However this is not enough. We are now three months our voice was heard and an agreement was reached. lican POWs, Maghaberry jail past the due date for Phase 2 and upcoming for Phase This agreement on August 12, 2010 included the aboli- 3 and still no movement for an end to controlled move- tion of controlled movement through a phased basis; ment or strip-searching. March 23, 2011 the induction of free association and the end of strip- Strip-searching is still ongoing with the practice of “We the Republican POWs currently incarcerated in searching: i.e. forced strip-searching and physical assaults on Repub- Maghaberry jail, Co Antrim would like to update the Phase 1: No random strip-searching will take place on lican prisoners. We have raised these matters with the general public on our struggle for political status. From the way to domestic and legal visits and video link facilitation group on a number of occasions over sev- the Stormont Agreement in 1998, we have endured from SSU; eral months, our patience has run out over these conditions such as 23-hour and sometimes 24-hour Phase 2: No rub-down searching internally within the matters. The BOSS chair is in place which removes the lockup, physical assaults, degrading strip searches and Republican wing; requirement for degrading strip-searching, but still the the denial of our basic human rights. Phase 3: The prison will introduce a new search facility screws are forcibly strip-searching Republican POWs. We have made attempts to tackle those problems for Republican prisoners which will remove the re- We decided to refuse to comply with these degrading using dialogue. We quickly discovered that the Brits quirement for routine strip-searching, all Republican strip searches any more. We will not stand by and let had no interest in dealing with our concerns. This left prisoners are required to go through a ‘BOSS’ chair. the screws renege on the agreement, we want this us with only one option: protest. Phase 1 was to be introduced straight away with agreement introduced in full or we will be forced to For almost five months we endured even worse than phase 2 to follow in December 2010 and finally phase take further action. 3 was to be complete in early 2011. Thirty years ago this year our comrades in the H-Blocks Political Status for Irish Republican prisoners! So far we have seen a relaxation of controlled of Long Kesh resisted such criminalisation which re- Free all anti-Imperialist political prisoners! movement with only six men allowed out on sulted in the deaths of ten young brave men. Many 30th Anniversary of the Hunger Strikes Meeting the landing at any given time instead of the others suffered unspeakable horror in their fight for political status. We ask the public, our comrades and Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 previous number of three. Free association supporters to remember them and ensure that this will 7.00 pm Tuesday 3 May 2011 has been established with Republican prison- ers allowed out from 8.30am – 8.00pm in the not happen again.” Speakers Sean Holihan, chair of the James Stephens/Roger Casement Cumann Republican Sinn Fein List of anti-Good Friday Agreement Republican Lee Jasper, Secretary National Assembly Against Racism Subhajyoti Ghosh, South Asia Solidarity Forum Prisoners in Ireland, north and south and abroad Yasmin Cass, Free Mohammed Hamid Campaign Speaker from Free Mumia Abu Jamal Campaign (please send us updates) Faiz Baluch, Baluchistan human rights activist Michael Holden, Irish Republican Prisoners Support Group Maghaberry Willie Wong - Armagh Ken Donohoe - Dublin Co. Louth Chair: Gerry Downing, Secretary IRPSG Tony Rooney -Belfast Tony Hyland - Dublin Maghaberry Gaol E-4 Darryn McCallion - Robbie Kearns - Wex- Roe 3 Liam Grogan - Kildare “They have nothing in their whole Imperial arsenal Derry ford Old Road Darren Mulholland - that can break the spirit of one Irishman who does- Brendy Conway - Michael McDonald - Ballinderry Upper Dundalk n't want to be broken” - Bobby Sands Belfast Co. Louth Lisburn Martin Corey - Lurgan Michael McKevitt - IRSP prisoners: Ireland Joe Barr - Strabane Dundalk Owen Clail BT28 2PT Stevie O Donnell David Jordan - Tyrone Denis Dywer Obituary: Colin Duffy - Lurgan Sean O'Reilly - Belfast Toirealach MacD- Eugene Kelly Harry Fitzsimmons - RICKARD COLLINS Robert O'Neill - Bel- hómhnaill - Ferman- Paul Kelly Belfast fast agh Paddy Wall Rickard Collins aged 47 from Leamington died sud- Sean McConville - Stephen McAllister - Cormac Fitzpatrick - Thomas Kelly denly on Friday 8 April 2011. Rickard was a member Lurgan Belfast Monaghan Gerard Kelleher of the Coventry and Damien McKenna - Christopher Nash - Neil Myles Warwickshire Socialist Lurgan E-3 Derry Jonathan Keogh Alliance and was a life Gary Toman - Lurgan Derek Brady - Dun- Martin McLoone - Noel Mooney long socialist activist. Brendan McConville - dalk Derry Gareth Bryne His family was from Lurgan John Brock - Dublin Mark McGuigan - Anthony Lee Clonakilty and he was Sean Connolly - Dub- JP Wooton - Craiga- Omagh very proud of his lin Other Gaols von Daniel Turnbull - Rebel Cork back- Anthony Crowley - Eddie McGarrigle Jason McCormack - Omagh ground. Indeed his Craigavon Cork Johnny McCrossan support for the strug- IRSP picket on 7 August 2010 Colie Avery - Lurgan Portlaoise Bernard Dempsy - (IRSP) The Grove gle against British which Rickard attended. Turlough Mc Allister - Portlaoise Gaol Dublin Castlerea Gaol occupation in Ireland South Armagh Portlaoise Aidan Hulme - Co. Castlerea, led him to support the Troops Out Movement and Paul Mc Caugherty - County Laoise Louth Co Roscommon more recently the Irish Republican Prisoners Support Lurgan Ireland Robert Hulme - Co. Ireland Louth Group. He will be remembered for his support in Kevin Barry Nolan - E-2 Kieron Doran, many labour movement protests against injustice and Co Cavan Jim McCormick - Co. Ecrou 293249, Patrick Tierney - Louth oppression. Rickard had a keen and perceptive inter- Gerard McManus - Block A, Cellule 119, Armagh Thomas Morris - est in socialism and regularly attended Workers Letterkenny Paris-la-Santé. Liam Rainey - Wex- Dublin Power rallies and meetings. As a friend and comrade I Damien McLaughlin - Michael Campbell ford Fintan Paul O'Farrell - will miss his good company and comradeship. Ardboe LUKISKES PRISON Tom O'Hanlon - Derry Co. Louth Sean Carlin - Belfast Lukiskiu bstr. 6 Rest in Peace, Rickard Jackie Bates - Wex- Barry Petticrew - (IRSP) Vilnius, LT 01108 ford Belfast Bernie McAdam, Workers Power and IRPSG Joe Connor - N Belfast Lithuania Ciaran Dunne - Dublin Declan John Rafferty -

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 9 Where now for the left in Ireland – revolutionary

struggle or reformist parliamentarianism? By A J Byrne

The outcome of the February Election orientated, parish pump Results of the 2011 Irish general elections: politicians; Ireland’s he biggest voting swing in the Irish traditions of often cor- Party Leader Total Votes Percent swing Total general election on 25 February in rupt local patronage and percentage terms was from Fianna Fail Fine Gael Enda Kenny 801,637 36.1% increase 8.8% 76 the PR system favours Labour Party Eamon Gilmore 431,798 19.4 % increase 9.3 % 37 (more anti-British nationalists) (-24%) these. So the hope for Fianna Fáil Micheál Martin 387,362 17.4% decrease 24.2% 20 Tto the Labour party at 9.3%, closely followed by the socialist future re- Sinn Féin Gerry Adams 220,660 9.9% increase 3.0% 14 Fine Gael (more pro-British nationalists) at 8.8%. sides in the United Left Alliance 57,139 2.6% increase 2.6% 5 Sinn Féin’s increase was a modest 3% and the ‘revolutionary’ ULA and Independents 287, 171 12.9% 14 United Left Alliance (ULA) an even more modest the new workers party 2.6%. But there was still a big left swing in Dub- they are promising to found does it? We will bureaucrats and the Government, bosses or- lin especially.[1] examine its programme and three critiques of ganisations etc to eliminate strikes which re- The bulk of the votes lost by Fianna Fail were that to determine the answer. The three cri- sulted in ever-increasing social inequality there working class and these did not go just to the tiques are those of Socialist Democracy (SD), the is no identification with the struggles of workers right and Fine Gael (less than 9%, mainly the Irish Republican Socialist party (IRSP) and Cork- against the bureaucrats who sell them out every rural, non working class vote) but left to Labour, based Alan Davis of the International Bolshevik time. And the reference to giving “full support over 9%, Sinn Fein, 3%, ULA, about 4.5% and left Tendency (IBT). [2] to those unions and workers who oppose the leaning independents also about 4.5%. Fine Gael Croke Park deal” is there to butter up to the got a shocking 64.8% in Mayo but only 16.8% in The ULA programme likes of Unite’s Jimmy Kelly, who implements Dublin North West. That was the only constitu- The ULA programme begins, “There can be no the Croke Park Agreement whilst ‘opposing’ it as ency where they failed to win a seat (Ireland just or sustainable solution to the crisis based on against SIPTU’s Jack O’Connor who always sup- operates a PR election with 3, 4 or 5 seat con- the capitalist market. Instead we favour democ- ported it, similar to the almost non-existent stituencies). In contrast Fianna Fail took only ratic and public control over resources so that divide between the leftist Unite and the rightist one Dublin seat out of 47 where the Labour social need is prioritised over profit.” Number Unison in Britain, a difference of little more than party approached 50% and the combined left two promises to unite all the oppressed “in the words and more or less militant members (see vote was about 60%. Those identifiable as left struggle to change society”; but change to page 5 for these details). got around 42% of the vote in the state for the what? “Make change happen, yes we can?” Socialist Democracy There follows a laudable series of leftist demands, defending immigrants, equality The first critique we will look at is that of Social- for all, don’t pay the bankers, tax the rich, ist Democracy (SD) the Irish section of the oppose ‘stealth taxes’ which force the poor Fourth international. Only it is not a critique at to pay proportionally most and tax the rich, all, it is a total collapse to the reformism of the defending health care and all public services ULA and very disappointing, given the previous etc. All very correct and laudable. But there history of the group. Where is the outrage at is no mention of the national question and the lack of opposition to the Good Friday Agree- no mention of socialism. So it is not exactly ment, so well argued by SD in the past. Where is expropriate the capitalists. These are just a the appreciation of the need to unite the class left reformist demands for getting elected struggle and the national question via Trotsky’s on the voters outrage and are almost totally theory of Permanent Revolution? It seems this unrealisable whilst the international bank- paean was written by leftist liberal reformists: ers control the capital needed to produce “We need a new Republic, a second Republic, a for need and not for profit. And there is the WORKERS REPUBLIC! We need to return to the first time ever; Fianna Fail and Fine Gael took question of how the state itself, including its promise of James Connolly and the fight for our 84.3% in the 1982 election. armed forces and Gardai (Irish police) not to independence in 1916.” But what kind of ‘lefts’ are these? Sinn Fein mention the prison officers, some of whom Well really comrades if all the study of Lenin and pitched quite ‘anti-banker, don’t pay’ in this have joined the Socialist Party, who are central Trotsky has left you back in 1916 you deserve to election, taking big votes around the border and to the ULA, would react to such a programme. stay there with your anti-working class phrases in its rural heartlands of Kerry, Waterford and The programme finished with this: like “the ownership of Ireland would belong to North Cork, the Midlands and west Dublin. But the people of Ireland and that all the children of the reality of a party heavily compromised on “An important part of this is the urgent need to Ireland would be cherished equally”. What peo- the national question and in a conservative reclaim and rebuild the trade unions and to ple of Ireland? Cowen, Kenny and their banker austerity-imposing administration in the north mobilise the power of workers though mass friends like Dermot Gleeson and Eugene Sheehy of Ireland gave the lie to all its promises. Labour action. The approach of Social Partnership has of Allied Irish Bank and Brian Goggin and Rich- rose to 35% in the polls last September when left workers defenceless and has led to a mas- ard Burrows of the Bank of Ireland? And you they were making left noises about opposing sive transfer of wealth from workers to employ- think these should be treated equally with Irish the bankers but they threw all that away in ers and must be scrapped. Our elected TDs will workers? An impossible aspiration and a truly conjunction with their TU backers when they give full support to those unions and workers reactionary programme for a socialist group to became ‘responsible’ by angling for a coalition who oppose the Croke Park deal and will use the aspire to. This is backward nationalist rub- with Fine Gael and promising to implement Dáil to raise the real issues that affect ordinary bish;“all the children of Ireland would be cher- austerity to pay the IMF, etc only at a slower working people.” ished equally”, rate with a minor reduction in the interest rate. Whilst correctly targeting the Social Partnership more anti- Continued on page 29 The independents are generally community which was annual agreements between TU Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 10 The “Help for Heroes” campaign attempts to normalise and legitimise the acts of violence of the British Imperialist state By Charlie Walsh

ver the last year or more an organi- Racism, jingoism, reactionary na- sation called “Help for Heroes” was tionalism and war mongering have set up in Britain in support of the always been at the forefront and British armed forces involved in the at the heart of all British Imperial- Oinvasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghani- ism's wars of conquest against stan. The British armed forces, the military wing many countries down the years of of British Imperialism and the boot boys of the it's 'glory' days of the British Em- Ruling Class in Britain, invaded and occupied pire or should I say the darkest Iraq and Afghanistan causing the dislocation of inglorious days of Empire; whether millions of people in both countries and caused in South Africa India, Ireland, death and destruction on a massive scale. Egypt, Aden, Cyprus, Malaya, Pal- These British armed forces, in collusion with the estine, Kenya et al. For example USA and other NATO members, dropped thou- during the Kenyan struggle for sands of tons of high explosives on the heads of Independence, British interroga- tors castrated Kenyan prisoners as “Just a few years after the defeat of Hitler came the Mau Mau the people in both countries, they used B52 and uprising in Kenya - a mass armed rebellion by the Kikuyu peo- other fighter bombers, helicopter gun ships, hell part of their abuse and torture of Kenyan freedom fighters, while ple, demanding the return of their land and freedom. The dra- -fire missiles, tanks and guns to kill and maim, conian response of Britain's colonial government was to detain terrorise, torture and abuse many many hun- hundreds of thousands died from torture, hunger and disease whilst nearly the entire Kikuyu population of one-and-a-half-million - dreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani men, to hold them in camps or confine them in villages ringed with held in detention camps. women and children. The night raids on Iraqi barbed wire - and to portray them as sub-human savages. and Afghani families were intended to terrorise The British armed forces are made From 1952 until the end of the war in 1960 tens of thousands of and cower these people. The use of the death up in the main of working class detainees - and possibly a hundred thousand or more - died squads of the SAS and SBS to carry out the se- youth who are brainwashed, in- from the combined effects of exhaustion, disease, starvation cret assassinations of alleged insurgents in both doctrinated, dehumanised, lied to, and systematic physical brutality. Until now these events have countries often ending up with the deaths of groomed and brutalised into be- remained untold, largely because the British government in innocent men, women and children, reminiscent coming killers for Capitalism and Kenya destroyed most of its files. of the way the British Army behaved in Ireland. Imperialism, mere cannon fodder in the cause of 'Queen and Coun- For the last eight years Caroline Elkins has conducted exhaus- I ask the question: Do the above atrocities car- tive research to piece together the story, unearthing realms of ried out by the conquering British armed forces try'. These same squaddies, whilst in the service of Imperialism are documents and interviewing several hundred Kikuyu survivors. make them “heroes”? Are the British soldiers Britain's Gulag reveals what happened inside Kenya's detention also the sworn enemy of the work- who threw an Iraqi youth of 17, an asthmatic camps, as well as the efforts to conceal the truth. Now, for the ing class and its class interests. who couldn't swim, into a canal, walked away first time, we can understand the full savagery of the Mau Mau and watched him drown, also “heroes”? Are the The interventions in Iraq and Af- war and the ruthless determination with which Britain sought British squaddies who kicked and beat to death ghanistan, like all Imperialist inter- to control its empire.” the Iraqi hotel receptionist, Baha Mousa, leaving ventions, were carried out in order News from Nowhere, Liverpool's Radical Community Bookshop. 98 assault marks on his body also “heroes”? No to seize control of the oil and gas British soldier has yet to be arrested and and other raw materials. In a sen- would imagine that the peoples of Iraq and charged with his murder. Are the British paras tence, to steal the natural resources in Iraq and Afghanistan do not view the British armed who murdered 14 unarmed civil rights demon- Afghanistan and to use both countries as bases forces as “heroes” or their acts of terrorism strators in Derry in 1972 also “heroes”? from which Imperialism can protect its interests, against them as “heroic”. strategic, economic, political and military. Re- The “Help for Heroes” campaign attempts to Sad to say but not surprised that that all Trade normalise and legitimise the acts of violence of member what Winston Churchill said: “Britain has no permanent friends and no permanent Union leaders in Britain and the Labour and the British Imperialist state, state terrorism Trade Union bureaucracy support uncondition- carried out by the British armed forces in Iraq enemies just permanent interests”. So spoke the true voice of British Imperialism. ally Imperialism's wars of conquest. While the and Afghanistan and seeks to glamorise and Stop the War coalition adopts a pacifist and non make acceptable the actions of the British Not only does Imperialism invade, occupy and -revolutionary position on Imperialism. Any armed forces by calling these military actions bomb a country back to the stone age, Vietnam, Marxist worth the name would call for the de- “heroic” and those doing the killings and terror- 1990 Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan today, it feat of Imperialism and campaign with the ising “Heroes”. also lies through its teeth just as its representa- working class on the slogan “The enemy is at This jingoism and glorification of war and death tive Blair did over Iraq's alleged 'weapons of home” not the poor, oppressed and exploited is best encapsulated in the macabre death ritual mass destruction'. The real reason for invading masses in Iraq and Afghanistan. at Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire for the return- Iraq wasn't to bring bourgeois democracy to Iraq but to overthrow Saddam Hussein and his KARL MARX wrote in relation to Ireland thus: “A ing dead soldiers, and in the military parades by country that oppresses another cannot itself be the returning military regiments in the towns regime. And why? Because for as long as he remained in power, he as President had control free”. He further stated, again in relation to and cities of Britain. How arrogant and superior Ireland, that for as long as the working class in these squaddies must feel, full of pride, return- of Iraq's oil wealth, which he nationalised in the 1980's; and only by overthrowing him and his Britain supported its 'own' ruling class against ing from Iraq and Afghanistan with no respect an oppressed nation and people, it can never and scant regard for the feelings of the people regime could Imperialism get its greedy hands on Iraq's oil wealth. Today in Iraq over one mil- free itself as an oppressed and exploited class that they occupied, oppressed, killed, orphaned, from the shackles [the political, economic and tortured, and abused. I would submit that killing lion people are dead and five million children orphaned because of Imperialism's war for oil ideological shackles] that tie it hand and foot to or injuring people does not make you a “hero” Capitalism/Imperialism. or your actions “heroic”. and strategic interests in that country. And I Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 11 Political prisoners in India: An Overview By Subhajyoti Ghosh (Britain South Asia Solidarity Forum)

This is the speech made by Subhajyoti Ghosh of the Britain South Asia Solidarity Forum at Internationalism the Bloody Sunday Anniversary meeting in London on 31st of January 2011. In response to a question at the end of his speech he said that estimates of the number of political prison- or the last several years, the Govern- ers in Indian jails were in the region of two lakh (200, 000) although there were no official ment of India and the various state figures and Indian states often criminalised prisoners to avoid conceding political status. governments have been pursuing the policies of Liberalisation, Privatisation Fand Globalisation. India is projected as one of science’. Whatever it is, we have to remember criminately used the infamous ‘TADA’ act in the the brightest emerging economies of the world, he’s just one of the thousands of political pris- nineties and many purely political cases were pronounced in the same breath as China. oners … and there is no reliable statistics about fabricated with a terrorism angle. their exact numbers even! Almost all the state However, this anti-people policy of reckless In fact mainly two sections of the people have governments in India are reluctant to describe liberalisation is being pursued in a brutal man- the detainees as political prisoners … because as been identified by the Indian state as the main ner … and despite all the pomp and glory pro- targets of its so-called war against terror—the per statute, they are supposed to offer some jected by the obliging media; it has led to the special status and facilities to this special cate- Maoists or Naxalites whom the prime minister of India has described as the ‘single largest plunder of natural resources. gory of prisoners. But in practice, the Political threat to internal security’ and the Muslims who Hunger, malnutrition and death have become Prisoners never get their due rights and almost the everyday experience of the people facing always some crimi- wide spread displacement from their homes and nal charges are habitats. Few can definitely say how many mil- brought against the lions of people have perished to death on a day- Political Prisoners to to-day basis. Wealth is being concentrated in deny them their fewer and fewer hands and the vast sections of rights. the masses have been left impoverished, de- Another interesting prived and discriminated. phenomenon in With their backs pushed to the wall the people India is – irrespective of the Indian sub-continent protested in their of the colour of the own ways, either spontaneously or through Governments, al- their organisations. People have been fighting most all the states for their land, livelihood, for fundamental social are equally harsh transformation, for the right to self- and brutal in its determination of the nationalities, for the em- treatment of political powerment of women and against social injus- prisoners. Rightists, tice, displacement and discrimination. In the leftists, centre-rights Activists of Democratic Students Union participate in a march to demand face of people’s resistance, which is natural and or centre-lefts, or the release of renowned paediatrician and social rights activist Binayak just, the state lets loose a reign of terror in all socialists – all politi- Sen in New Delhi on January 30, 2011. parts of the sub-continent. Thousands upon cal parties are thousands of people have been killed by the equally responsible for this and that led to a are being portrayed by sections of the media as security forces and millions of people have been very sorry state of affairs throughout the coun- ‘terrorists’, ‘ISI agents’ or ‘SIMI’ (Student Islamic put behind bars. try. Movement of India) members. Today, these people constitute the majority of For example, Binayak Sen has been persecuted By consciously adopting this vilification cam- India’s political prisoners! by Raman Singh-led BJP Govt in Chattisgarh. BJP paign, the State is extracting social sanction to represents the pro-Hindu ultra rightist force in do whatever they wish to with its armed forces. Probably all of us in this room are familiar with India, and leftists in the state have mobilised Anyone who dares to speak against the policy of the name of Binayak Sen – a medical doctor and movement demanding Dr Sen’s release. But the Indian state in regions such as Jharkhand, human rights activist languishing in a prison of unfortunately where leftists are in power, like West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Chattisgarh state. Last month, a court in Raipur say in the state of West Bengal, the situation is Pradesh, Maharashtra are potential Maoists. found him guilty of helping the Naxalites no different. On the contrary, West Bengal is People fighting against displacement, for their charged him with connections with a banned one of the states where the number of political livelihood, for a square meal in these regions Maoist organization and sentenced him to life prisoners is too high and allegations of human cannot be from any other section or independ- term. This incident has generated huge protests rights abuse by the communist-ruled state are ent but Maoists! against the Indian state – both within and out- countless. side the country- and the overseas protests are Secondly, the politics of the recent spate of mostly spearheaded by the people of Indian So in this issue, BJP and CPI(M) are on the same bomb blasts in various states of India have origin, that’s another interesting aspect. boat, and India’s oldest political party Congress, pointed to ominous portends in the future. The is no exception either. When Congress was in bomb blasts that happened in the states of Now Binayak Sen is probably the most high- power in the disputed state of Indian- Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, profile Political Prisoner in India now – or if we administered Kashmir, several political activists Rajasthan all have a strange coincidence when it can use the nomenclature of Amnesty Interna- were arrested and detained for months without comes to the response of the Indian state. The tional, we can call him a ‘Prisoner of Con- trial. Congress-ruled Maharashtra state indis- spate of bomb blasts has added fodder to the

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 12

blitzkrieg of the so-called war against terror of Just recently, on the Occasion of International the Indian state. Human Rights Day— Political Prisoners in Medinipur Central Jail, in the state of West Little wonder, the Muslim community whether Bengal, started their Indefinite Hunger Strike on it is the so-called Bangladeshi, Hyderabadi or of 10th December 2010 … and showing solidarity to any other identity has become easy targets. The their comrades, nearly 150 political prisoners in police and the anti-terrorist squads are silent on different jails of the same state—also started the number of illegal detentions and torture of hunger strike on the same day for an indefinite the Muslims that they have so far committed. period. The irony is —The Indian government The media is abuzz everyday with increasing calls these prisons ‘Correctional Homes’, how- instances of arrests of Muslims under this or ever the appalling situation in these homes that blasts thus catering to the campaign of forced the inmates to start indefinite hungers vilification of this community. Many Muslims strike. are languishing in this connection without any cases charged against them thus becoming easy Faced with such a situation, the democratic and prey to be booked in cases in the future! conscientious people of the sub-continent de- cided to form a committee which will stand up The Red Corridor. As of 2009, Naxalites are ac- There are three major instruments in the hand against state oppression and raise its voice for of state to put these political detainees behind tive across approximately 220 districts in twenty the unconditional release of all political prison- states of India accounting for about 40 percent bars – and these are three pieces of draconian ers. The Bandi Mukti Committee (BMC) of West legislations … Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of India's geographical area. They are especially Bengal has been working on the same issue for concentrated in an area known as the "Red (UAPA), Armed Forces Special Powers Act the last seven to eight years and this has helped Corridor", where they control 92,000 square (AFSPA), Public Safety Act (PSA) and some simi- to formulate the policy of the newly formed kilometres (Wikipedia). lar minor acts. Only purpose of these legisla- committee. tions is to suppress and stifle political dissent among the most oppressed and exploited peo- The meeting of the preparatory committee was jail manuals and for improvement of prison ple of the subcontinent. held in January 2008 and thus the Committee conditions. for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) was In different regions of the sub-continent jails are We, the Britain South Asia Solidarity Forum, formally constituted at the Inaugural Confer- are fully behind this effort. We appeal to all thus being filled with political prisoners and the ence held on 31 March and 1 April 2008 in living conditions in these prisons simply beggar sections of the people to join this effort and Delhi. A sixty six member executive committee description. The prisons in India are not the so- work for the cause of all prisoners in general with members representing the various regions and political prisoners in particular, irrespective called ‘correctional homes’, but places where of the sub-continent was elected. The first human beings are turned into animals. There of their political or organisational differences. If meeting of the executive committee was held are many cases where prisoners have been one is committed to the betterment of the on the 5th June 2008. languishing in the prisons not only for years but humanity then that concern should be the driv- even for decades without trial. Long periods of Since then, the CRPP and some fellow organisa- ing force to be part of such a movement to carry prisons life inevitably take its toll on human tions are fighting for the cause of the uncondi- forward the task of the unconditional release of mind and body. tional release of the political prisoners and the political prisoners, not to mention the im- bringing about changes in periods of sentences, provement of the prison conditions.

Where We Stand – Socialist Fight EB the state forces and their direct agencies themselves, and cause the collapse of whole nations with their 1. We stand with Karl Marx: ‘The emancipation of the we must fight and defeat and replace them with a direct intervention in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan working classes must be conquered by the working revolutionary leadership by mobilising the base against and their proxy wars in Somalia and the Democratic classes themselves. The struggle for the emancipation the pro-capitalist bureaucratic misleaders to open the Republic of the Congo, etc. Workers have the right to of the working class means not a struggle for class way forward for the struggle for workers’ power. sell their labour internationally wherever they get the privileges and monopolies but for equal rights and 4. We are full in support of all mass mobilisations best price. Only union membership and pay rates can duties and the abolition of all class rule’ (The Interna- against the onslaught of this reactionary Con-Lib Dem counter employers who seek to exploit immigrant tional Workingmen's Association 1864, General Rules). coalition. However, whilst participating in this struggle workers as cheap labour to undermine the gains of past struggles. 2. The capitalist state consists, in the last analysis of we will oppose all policies which subordinate the work- ruling-class laws within a judicial system and detention ing class to the political agenda of the petty-bourgeois Socialist Fight is produced by the following Editorial centres overseen by the armed bodies of police/army reformist leaders of the Labour party and trade unions. Board: who are under the direction and are controlled in acts 5. We recognise that class society, and capitalism as the Gerry Downing, Ray Rising, Charlie Walsh and Aggie of defence of capitalist property rights against the last form of class society, is by its nature patriarchal. In McCallum. interests of the majority of civil society. The working that sense the oppression of women is different from class must overthrow the capitalist state and replace it all other forms of oppression and discrimination. Be- with a workers’ state based on democratic soviets/ cause this social oppression is inextricably tied to pri- Subscribe to Socialist Fight workers’ councils to suppress the inevitable counter- vate property and its inheritance to achieve full sexual, Four Issues: UK: £12.00, EU: £14.00 revolution of private capitalist profit against planned social and economic freedom and equality for all we production for the satisfaction of socialised human need to overthrow class society itself. Rest of the World: £18.00 need. 6. We fight racism and fascism. We support the right of Cheques and Standing Orders to 3. We recognise the necessity for revolutionaries to people to fight back against racist and fascist attacks by Socialist Fight Account No. 1. carry out serious ideological and political struggle as any means necessary. Self-defence is no offence! We direct participants in the trade unions (always) and in support ‘No Platform’ for all fascists but never call on Unity Trust Bank, Sort Code the mass reformist social democratic bourgeois work- the capitalist state to ban fascist marches or parties; 08-60-01, Account. No. 20227368. ers’ parties despite their pro-capitalist leaderships these laws would inevitably primarily be used against when conditions are favourable. Because we see the workers’ organisations, as history has shown. Contact us at: trade union bureaucracy and their allies in the Labour 7. We oppose all immigration controls. International PO Box 59188, London, NW2 9LJ party leadership as the most fundamental obstacle to finance capital roams the planet in search of profit and the struggle for power of the working class, outside of Imperialist governments disrupts the lives of workers

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 13 The Red Flags of Hope Still Fly on the Roof of the World By Aggie McCallum

‘Before the Initiation, the Women’s Oppression woman question was not so seriously debated in our party. That was our weakness. And in ocialist Fight Editorial Board member our society, male domination, Aggie McCallum analyses the central feudal relations have prevailed role the struggle for women's liberation for a long time. In general terms is playing in the revolution in Nepal we agreed, yeah, the woman S question is important. As com- Nepal – a country where 70% of its people lived in dire poverty. 64% of its children suffered munists we know these things. malnutrition. 65% of the land was owned by But in a concrete sense, in a the rich while the masses of its population serious sense, I will say that owned only 10%. Women were excluded from before the Initiation we were not many jobs; not entitled to received inheri- so serious on the woman ques- tances; not allowed to own land; 60% were tion. And because we were not No other revolution in history has had women play such a key role. uneducated and the caste system was particu- serious, therefore, many woman Of the thousands of fighters it is claimed that 40% were women. larly cruel to the Dalit women. comrades were not at the fore- front of the movement. There were some the People’s War…i.e. power mongers; corrupt; All these conditions flourished in Nepal under women sympathizers and some organizers, but opportunists; killers…and so on. He calls for the monarchy. Now after the revolution the there was not much effort to develop the powers like the USA, European Union and oth- king, who appeared on all accounts to ignore women comrades. ers to sound against them. (Luckily I could find the suffering of his people, is travelling the Then right after the Initiation, I saw the sacrifice no evidence that Nepal has any significant oil- countryside hoping to return to power. The fields). ruling class, which never acknowledged their women were making in the main region, in the need to live off the backs of the poor, (although struggling zones – their militancy, their heroism, Constantly through his paper Prasai uses a that is the historical case with every ruling class and their devotion. When I saw women masses belittling term when referring to elements in every country on the planet), look to pre- come into the field, then we started to debate related to the People’s War…. The so-called serve their power and cry out for the return of seriously the woman question.” People’s movement. The so-called founders of the monarchy. Astonishingly under the monar- Comrade Prachanda went on to talk about the the Republic Nepal. The so-called new Nepal – chy 32,000 child laborers worked in stone quar- problems they confronted in getting women Federal Republic Nepal. The so-called ‘Civilian ries to help their families survive. And it gets involved and developing their leadership. He Supremacy’ (his inverted comas). The so-called worse as 27% – an estimated 2.6 million – chil- said that they were beginning to discuss orga- big parties. The so-called leaders….and so it dren in Nepal worked as child laborers of which nizing collective childcare – and how to deal goes. approximately one million of them work with- with issues such as lack of birth control and In his opinion the only democratic solution for out pay and many work without rights, bonded illiteracy among women. Nepal is the return of constitutional monarchy to an employer for a set period of time. The age The Maoists, once they recognized the need to – with strengthened parliamentary democracy. range of these children my research tells me, empower women, lost no time in developing (In 1990 Nepal moved from a monarchy to range from 6 years to 14 years. A quality educa- strategies for their liberation. In 2002 Ireland’s constitutional monarchy after widespread un- tion under the monarchy was available only to OWN printed a piece on International Women’s rest in the kingdom). As I read his words I the elite ruling class. Day by journalist Li Onesto. She went deep into couldn’t help but wonder, other than off load- ing his anger, what he expected the name call- The revolution the guerrilla zones of the People’s War and witnessed the extreme poverty. She witnessed ing would achieve. The brave men and women No other revolution in history has had women women rising from nightmarish oppression and who moved against the wealthy elite and the play such a key role. Of the thousands of fight- joining their men in the fight against a corrupt powerful ruling class and the monarchy, with ers it is claimed that 40% were women. Young and oppressive regime. As she travelled little more than their passion and belief in a women enthusiastically committed their lives through the guerrilla zones she saw revolution- better world would undoubtedly ignore a voice to the fight against oppression and to the ideals ary men doing tasks traditionally done by tainted with hate. of the revolution. Many of them were captured women. She saw People’s Courts hear and Almost immediately the revolution became and tortured and died for their belief in a better address land disputes – land that had been entwined with the fight against women’s op- life and are among the many martyrs. These stolen by corrupt politicians. The land was re- pression. It has been inspiring people world- daring women were an unexpected resource turned to the rightful owners – many were to wide, to witness women rising from one of the for the Maoists leaders. widows and single women. She saw rapists and most oppressed groups on the planet to fight I include an extract from a well known inter- those involved in exploiting women in the sex for not only their personal freedom but for the view in 2004 with the CPN Maoist leader Com- trade brought to justice. (http:// freedom of their country and its future. Women rade Prachanda by a journalist Li Onesto from irelandsown.net/womensd14.html) leaders have emerged from the aftermath into the Revolutionary Worker newspaper. Li On- The current turmoil in Nepal threatens the the world spotlight and one of the most inspir- esto was particularly interested in the role and hope of a better world. Will the lives sacrificed ing is Comrade Pavati. Her books ‘The Question development of the Maoist women. She asked be in vain? Will the dream die? Forces for a of Women’s Leadership in the People’s War in Comrade Prachanda to talk about the problem return to the monarchy remain strong. Dirgha Nepal” and “People’s War and Women’s Libera- in developing women leaders in a country Raj Prasai, former Member of Parliament writes tion in Nepal” allow significant insights into where oppression of women had been deeply from Kathmandu…an article called ‘Nepalese empowering the oppressed – particularly and built into the economic and social relation. Maoists and Current Situation in Nepal’. With- mainly women. She also identifies obstacles remaining. Issues that need to be address and He told her:- out qualification he name-calls the leaders of

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challenged for the future progress of this libera- archaic feudalist and crony monarchy rule that surely stir the hearts of all men and the hopes tion. Although I do not own copies of her books even today continues to support structures of of all women:- I have read snatches of them. gender and caste oppression. Down with the liars who are talking of freedom Many women from around the world are writ- Maoists have seen firsthand the force that and equality for all, while there is an oppressed ing about the women of Nepal. Analysing the women can bring to a revolution….and they sex, while there are oppressor classes, while conflict, identifying previously unrecognized welcomed that force and benefited from it. there is private ownership of capital, of shares, issues and seeking answers to what empowers However they were not expecting it….yet al- while there are the well-fed with their surplus and how to empower women. Reecha most a century ago another great leader did of bread who keep the hungry in bondage. Not Upadhyay, a graduate of the New School Uni- identify the power of women. freedom for all, not equality for all, but a fight against the oppressors and exploiters, the abo- versity International Affairs Program writes:- On Wikipedia I note that Lenin was the first lition of every possibility of oppression and There is a need for nation states and the inter- world leader to give equal status to women. exploitation – that is our slogan. national community to effectively deal with Investigating further it comes into focus that issues women face during conflict times such as Lenin had identified the status of women as a Freedom and equality for the oppressed sex! gender-based violence, rape as a tool of war, major issue in building a new world. Extract Freedom and equality for the workers, for the women’s access to rule of law in post-conflict from a letter written from Afar, Zurich March toiling peasants! situation, and the feminization of war….these 1917 by Lenin confirms this:- A fight against the oppressors, a fight against issues are extremely important for Nepal’s fu- If we do not draw women into public activity, ture. Nepali women must not be placed within a the capitalists, a fight against the profiteering into the militia, into political life; if we do not kulaks! homogeneous framework and should be exam- tear women away from the deadening atmos- That is our fighting slogan, that is our proletar- ined within a diversity of identities and position phere of household and kitchen; then it is impos- ian truth, the truth of the struggle against capi- as women from different castes face different sible to secure real freedom, it is impossible tal, the truth which we flung in the face of the forms of oppression and freedoms. She con- even to build democracy, let alone socialism. cludes:-…..the responsibility of the Nepali state world of capital with its honeyed, hypocritical lies in empowering its civil society to construct it But the speech he wrote for the second anniver- pompous phrases about freedom and equality s own path of peace and justice and to end the sary of the Great October Revolution must in general, about freedom and equality for all.

Declaration, from back page Libya. In the process of nationalisation of the means of Egypt, Bahrain, Ivory Coast, Palestine, Iraq and the hunt production and post-1969 energy resources. Gad- Afghanistan against Imperialism and the native for "Gaddafi mercenaries” they seek to demoral- dafi banned trade unions and strikes and made capitalists. ise the work force in the country, preparing it for racist anti-immigrant agreements with Berlusconi, The first step towards this is to fight in our own the super exploitation in a new era of extreme he has sponsored the election campaign of countries against the Imperialist bourgeoisie and Imperialist plunder. The Libyan "rebels" are a Sarkozy and privatized and made auctions with semi-colonial Britain, Brazil, South Africa. We bunch bourgeois turncoats from Gaddafi regime the energy resources of Libya. Thus, the caudillo advocate the defeat of our own governments, as in favour of big business internationally. of Tripoli has lost popularity with the Libyan and allies against Imperialist recolonisation of the Political groupings claiming to be Marxists who African population and fuelled the appetite of world proletariat. We support the full right of the portray the popular uprisings in the Arab world as sectors of the native bourgeoisie to negotiate Libyan masses to seize the multinational British, diverted "revolutions" are demagogues, who directly with Imperialism, freeing up Gaddafi clan. Brazilian and South African companies and of all flatter and stupefy the masses while new pro- The masses can have no confidence in the anti- capital in Libya to nationalise them without com- Imperialist bourgeois puppet governments are Imperialism of Gaddafi. Therefore we demand the pensation under workers' control. being stabilised. But the worst is when these arming of the whole Libyan people against Imperi- ● Defeat Imperialism, Fight for the sovereignty, groups in the name of supporting the Libyan alism and the reactionary opposition. We demand unity and independence of Libya with the meth- masses in their struggle for democracy, combined the unconditional defence of Libya against Imperi- ods of permanent revolution! with Imperialist war propaganda by the world alism and its agents. We demand a military united ● For a Military United Front with the Libyan media to cover up the CIA coup. Those who now front with Gaddafi against NATO and the royalist, army against pro-Imperialist INTC and against all refuse to establish a military front with Gaddafi CIA agent, "rebels" who are politically similar to groups sponsored by the CIA! externally and internally to defeat the interests of the pro-Imperialist Loyalists of the north of Ire- Imperialism, betray the struggle and the fight land, the Inkatha Freedom Party of South Africa ● Build Revolutionary Committees in all work- against global Imperialism and the genocidal state or, more closely, the Contras of Nicaragua. places, colleges and regions against Imperialist of Israel that massacres the Palestinians. This was the revolutionary tactics of Lenin and intervention! We denounce the main international revisionist Trotsky before the Kornilov uprising, Kerensky's ● For Constituent Assembly based on these currents that formally share the following posi- former general who tried to carry out a coup in revolutionary committees. tions: Russia in August 1917. The Bolsheviks called for a ● For a Workers and Farmers Government! united front and military weapons to Kerensky 1) characterise the existence of an "Arab revolu- ● In defence of the right to establish trade un- demanded at the same time that Kerensky be tion" or "democratic revolutions" in Africa and the ions and the right to strike! Middle East blamed for paving the path for reaction, and thus ● No immigration control, equal rights and 2) Support the pro-imperialist "rebels" in Libya prepared a social revolution. Similarly, the reac- conditions for all immigrant workers! These include the USFI (NPA-France), LIT (PSTU- tion to the responsibility of Gaddafi for the coup Brazil), ITU (IzquierdaSocialista-Argentina), IMT will drive the masses to combine the tasks of the ● Workers' Control of work places and oil fields, (Socialist Appeal, Britain); CWI (Socialist Party anti-Imperialist struggle with the democratic and food subsidies and essential goods, minimum Britain): IST (SWP, Britain). FT (PTS-Argentina); socialist to move toward the establishment of a living wage, full employment, expropriation of all FLTI (LOI-DO Argentina); L5I (Workers Power- workers and peasants government where the pan enterprises and Imperialist capitals! Britain) -Arabism of Gaddafi has stopped. The victory over ● For strikes and occupations to prevent the It was the anti-working class, neoliberal policies of the counterrevolutionary Imperialist military movement of troops and munitions to attack Gaddafi during the last decade that paved the way offensive would not only be a huge boost for the Libya! proletariat Libyan who could settle accounts with this reaction. Gaddafi has established new agree- ● For a Socialist Federation of North Africa and ments with Imperialism, destroying the gains of the warlord of Tripoli, but would also give a huge impetus to the struggle of workers in Tunisia, the Middle East

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 15

Military United Front but no political support for Gaddafi against the assaults of Impe- rialism and its agents, the reactionary Benghazi rebels, Socialist Fight 18/3/2011

do, like Workers Power, do not allow these questions to make any Libya Crisis difference to their support for these obviously counter- he world economic crisis has produced revolutionary scoundrels. a string of uprisings in the Arab world The method we will employ in this beginning in Tunisia which has inspired piece is that which Trotsky used in the oppressed of the world. They were his defence of the USSR as a de- Tproduced by the fightback of the international generate workers state. That is we working class; the French strike waves, the will attempt to defend the gains of Greek strikes, the British the Irish student fight- the 1969 revolution led by Muam- back to mention a few. The Arab uprisings in mar Gaddafi which deposed King turn have produced a powerful response from Idris without defending the char- the US working class in Wisconsin and elsewhere acter of or means used by Gaddafi to the massive onslaught of US finance capital. in doing so and only defending Sarkozy shakes hands with Mahmoud Jibril and Ali Al-Esawi, The latter may prove by far the most significant him in direct conflict with Imperi- in the long run if it presages the re-awaking of representatives of the unelected ITNC in Benghazi in Paris, alism and its agents and never March 10 where he recognised them as the legitimate govern- that most powerful of all sleeping giants, the US against his own working class. In working class. But the Arab events have pro- ment of Libya. The NPA and the USFI demand recognition from like manner Trotsky defended the all the Imperialist powers for these counter-revolutionaries. duced the most dramatic results so far and have gains of the 1917 Russian Revolu- also posed the greatest test for Marxists. tion in the USSR against Imperialism and capital- Many self-proclaimed revolutionary socialists ist restoration without defending Stalin or the Their leftist supporters can draw no conclusion have failed this test on the question of Libya in corrupt bureaucracy represented by Stalin. Of from how the balance of class forces internation- particular. But their orientation to the events in course the analogy is limited in that property ally has developed. According to the Agence Tunisia and Egypt, falling for Imperialist dema- relations were never overturned in Libya how- France Presse (March 7), “The Gulf Cooperation gogy about ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ and the ever the interests of world Imperialism were Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi ‘democratic revolution’ have prepared this fail- severely curtailed and continue to be so to this Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) demands ure, as well as the previous history of some in day, a fact that all our leftist ‘rebel’ supporters that the UN Security Council take all necessary accommodating to Imperialism in the Balkans on studiously ignore. measures to protect civilians, including enforcing the basis of ‘humanitarian intervention’. But a no-fly zone over Libya”. freedom and democracy for whom and to do Not any type of revolution but a France has recognised the rebels as the legiti- what? In a class-dominated world there can be counter-revolution mate government of Libya and the Arab League no such non-class slogans, international finance has sided with them (against the opposition of We must emphasis at the outset that the upris- capital wants freedom and democracy smash the Syria and Algeria), demanding Imperialist inter- ing in Libya is not any type of revolution but a organisations of the metropolitan working class vention. David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy counter-revolution, with an Imperialist-backed and to open up the economies of the semi- have been to the forefront in demanding urgent and CIA sponsored leadership. It is a continua- colonial world to its unfettered penetration, to Imperialist intervention. A meeting on March 2 tion of a whole series of reactionary attempts to reduce these countries to the state of Iraq, Af- in the British parliament of the Henry Jackson restore the Monarchy and tribal privileges on ghanistan, Somalia and the Congo. The interna- Society “urged the Prime Minister to stand fast behalf of US and western Imperialism which tional working class must deny them this free- in his commitment to put a stop to the crimes of began soon after Gaddafi took power in 1969 dom and democracy if they are to survive and Colonel Gaddafi, including through the imple- and have continued sporadically ever since. The advance to world revolution. mentation of a no-fly zone and active assistance only flag flown by the rebels is that of the Impe- to Libyan opposition movements in conjunction In many cases this involves forming a military rialist-imposed monarchy of King Idris (1951-69). with our allies”. Stars of the meeting were that block, a Military United Front without political This uprising has become in fact the central fearless champion of the oppressed and seeker support, with the most brutal of dictators, stratagem of Imperialism to counter and defeat after truth whom Israel asked to conduct the Ahmadinejad of Iran and Gaddafi of Libya, who the great progressive uprising in Tunisia, Egypt whitewash investigation into its murderous at least defy the dictates of international finance and Bahrain in particular, all of which have a commando raid on the aid flotilla to Gaza, Nobel capital to some extent. We must emphasise that powerful working class at their base and there- Peace Prize Winner Lord David Trimble, joined this cannot involve giving any political support to fore the inherent possibility of moving towards by such fellow fearless champions of the world such regimes; we must not put our heads in the socialist revolution if a revolutionary Trotskyist revolution as Khaeri Aboushagor (UK Represen- noose of the national bourgeoisie as Stalin did leadership can emerge to lead on this on the tative of the [CIA-sponsored] Libyan League for with the Kuomintang which led to the horrific political perspective of Trotsky’s Permanent Human Rights) and Air Vice-Marshal Tony Ma- massacre of the Shanghai Soviet in 1927. No Revolution. ‘victory to Gaddafi’ slogans are permissible, just son, CB, CBE, DL, the former Air Secretary for the The left took the side of the rebels in the mis- as Trotsky never said ‘victory to Stalin’. At the RAF. taken belief that this was a continuation of the same time it is an unpardonable dereliction of As for the naïve notion that these ‘masses’ must Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings. But our revolutionary duty by the so-called Trotskyist be the same as the masses in Tunisia and Egypt ‘revolutionaries’ (so dubbed by The Guardian, ‘revolutionaries’ that they accept the bona fides have we forgotten about the deluded pro- for instance, who see no irony in Imperialism of the Libyan Interim Transitional National Coun- Imperialist masses that brought about the fall of backing ‘revolutionaries’) have accepted the cil (ITNC), whose slogans are ‘Freedom, Justice the Berlin Wall, the Velvet revolution, the Or- backing of every Imperialist government in the and Democracy’. The vast majority never ques- ange revolution and all the other ‘coloured’ so- world and every reactionary regime in the Gulf. tion the politics of this Council and the few that called revolutions (in reality counter-revolutions)

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 16 that Imperialism sponsored and the CIA facili- the front,” says Juma‘ Muhammad, one of hun- tated in recent years? There is no indication dreds of former Abu Salim inmates helping to whatsoever in Libya of any progressive political rally the crowds behind the Islamists. “We’re tension let alone conflict between the base and with the people; the Council is not.” In open-air the leadership of the rebels, unlike in Egypt and prayers and graffiti, they repetitively denounce Tunisia. But there are al Qaeda CIA backed oppo- Qaddafi -- not least because of his bushy curls -- nents who are even more opposed to the organ- as an unbeliever, a Mossad agent and a Jew. ised working class. In Tunisia in particular the Another Abu Salim inmate notes that two rebel masses are pressing on with the revolution and fighters killed in the first battle for the oil port of succeeding in pushing aside more leaders from Ra’s Lanouf were Libyan veterans of the Afghan the old regime who have emerged hoping to jihad, as is a 41 year-old rebel commander.”[4] stabilise their rule. Egypt will also succeed in deepening its revolution in like manner as with A new Nasser, Muammar Gaddafi the Bahrainis, we are absolutely confident. In 1969 a new Nasser, Muammar Gaddafi, Trotsky was somewhat more sanguine about emerged in Libya. In 1951 before oil was discov- these ‘masses’: Professor Michel Chossudovsky: “the Central ered in Libya (1958) it was officially the poorest Intelligence Agency using Pakistan’s ISI as a go- country in the world, after the devastation “But the masses are by no means identical: there between played a key role in training the Muja- wrought in it by genocidal Italian colonialism – are revolutionary masses, there are passive hideen. In turn, the CIA-sponsored guerrilla up to 30% of the population slaughtered in the masses, there are reactionary masses. The very training was integrated with the teachings of decade of the 1920s and then another terrible same masses are at different times inspired by Islam. The madrasahs were set up by Wahabi devastation in WWII. When Gaddafi took power different moods and objectives. It is just for this fundamentalists financed out of Saudi Arabia” in 1969 he set about a massive redistribution of reason that a centralized organization of the the oil wealth.[6] And in order to do so he had to vanguard is indispensable. Only a party, wielding can today reveal that the MI6 officers involved in prevent the big multi-nationals siphoning all that the authority it has won, is capable of overcom- the alleged plot were Richard Bartlett, who has wealth. Indeed he was the prime moving force ing the vacillation of the masses themselves.”[1] previously only been known under the codename behind the 1973 OPEC embargo which secured In Libya we had a reactionary leadership who PT16 and had overall responsibility for the opera- such a massive transfer of wealth to the oil pro- knew how to divert these masses against black tion; and David Watson, codename PT16B. As ducers from the US, Europe and Japan. But only workers first and then in favour of Imperialism. Shayler’s opposite number in MI6, Watson was Iraq and Libya used their oil wealth for the bene- responsible for running a Libyan agent, fit of their own people, the Saudis, the Shah of According to David Rothscum, “The main opposi- ‘Tunworth’, who was providing information from Iran and the Gulf States re-invested in the West tion group in Libya now is the National Front for within the cell. According to Shayler, MI6 passed to assist them out of their crisis. Iraq suffered its the Salvation of Libya. This opposition group is £100,000 to the al-Qaeda plotters.” dismal fate because of that and now the Imperi- being funded by Saudi Arabia, the CIA, and alists hope it is the turn of Libya, egged on by French Intelligence. This group unified itself with Imperialism, in the shape of the CIA, is hedging our bogus revolutionaries. other opposition groups, to become the National its bets in Libya today. The ITNC is losing credibil- Conference for the Libyan Opposition. It was this ity and the fundamentalists are gaining it in the Wikipedia reports on the1969 movement was: ranks of the rebels. According to Michel Chossu- organization that called for the “Day of Rage” “The Free Officers Movement, which claimed dovsky, “the Central Intelligence Agency using that plunged Libya into chaos on February 17 of credit for carrying out the coup, was headed by a Pakistan’s ISI as a go-between played a key role this year.”[2] Despite the fact that there was a twelve-member directorate that designated itself in training the Mujahideen. In turn, the CIA- huge and unexpected response to this call, no the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). This sponsored guerrilla training was integrated with doubt inspired by the events in Tunisia and body constituted the Libyan government after the teachings of Islam. The madrasahs were set Egypt, we are not foolish enough to think that the coup. In its initial proclamation on Septem- up by Wahabi fundamentalists financed out of the CIA is capable of fostering that out of noth- ber 1, the RCC declared the country to be a free Saudi Arabia” [3] There were a substantial num- ing. However there was never any suggestion and sovereign state called the Libyan Arab Re- ber of Libyan Jihadists in Afghanistan in those that the reactionary leadership were under public, which would proceed "in the path of years and when they returned to Libya as the political threat from the risen masses. Indeed freedom, unity, and social justice, guaranteeing Islamic Fighting Group they retained their CIA the targeting of the ‘black mercenaries’ as the right of equality to its citizens, and opening connections as Shayler and the Observer have agents of Gaddafi and the reported execution of before them the doors of honourable work." The proved. It is now being put to good use as the 100 of them was surely a move by this leader- rule of the Turks and Italians and the following extract from Stratfor, Jihadist Opportu- ship to ensure that no opposition could emerge "reactionary" regime just overthrown were char- nities in Libya tells us: from the working class. acterized as belonging to "dark ages," from Al Qaeda cell in Libya “Outside Benghazi’s courthouse, these multiple which the Libyan people were called to move Islamist groups have proved assiduous in assert- forward as "free brothers" to a new age of pros- There are many reports on the involvement of ing their presence. The Muslim Brothers, Libya’s perity, equality, and honour.”[7] an Al Qaeda cell in Libya and there are numerous oldest political party established by Egyptian Let us set out just how far Gaddafi honoured sources testifying on their attempts to assassi- émigrés fleeing Nasser’s repression in the 1950s, these pledges and what he did that outraged, nate Gadaffi. According to Martin Bright, home appears to be the best organized. Hitherto an and continues to outrage, world Imperialism so affairs editor in The Observer, Sunday 10 Novem- elitist group concentrated in Libyan academe, it much. We can guarantee they are not outraged ber 2002, “British intelligence paid large sums of is rapidly acquiring a grassroots reach through at how he deals with his working class oppo- money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed the mosques, a newly acquired forum the liberals nents, just how he deals with his pro-Imperialist attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996... lack. Scrapping their previous reformist agenda, ones. Our leftists should be able to distinguish The latest claims of MI6 involvement with Libya's the Brothers now preach revolution and an anti- these two now. These extracts are from LIBYA, a fearsome Islamic Fighting Group, which is con- Qaddafi jihad… Within days, the academics out- country study by the Federal Research Division, nected to one of bin Laden's trusted lieutenants, side the courthouse were outnumbered by would Library of Congress, edited by Helen Chapin will be embarrassing to the Government, which -be mujahedeen staging prayers “fi sabil Allah,” Metz. We can scarcely accuse such a source of a described similar claims by renegade MI5 officer in the path of God, for the fight against the colo- pro-Gaddafi bias: David Shayler as 'pure fantasy'… The Observer nel. “We control the street and the fighting at

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 17

“In December (1970) the Libyan government all the fault of Gaddafi and the perpe- suddenly nationalized the holdings of British trators are almost innocent of their own Petroleum in Libya... In 1973 the Libyan govern- crimes. The Christian Science Monitor ment announced the nationalization of a control- headlined How Qaddafi helped fuel fury ling interest in all other petroleum companies toward Africans in Libya, March 6, operating in the country. This step gave Libya http://news.yahoo.com/s/ control of about 60 percent of its domestic oil csm/20110306/wl_csm/367708 production by early 1974, a figure that subse- “Accra, Ghana – As Libya erupts into quently rose to 70 percent.”[8] civil war, migrant labourers from sub- “A property law was passed that forbade owner- Saharan Africa are coming under in- ship of more than one private dwelling, and creasing threat of mob violence due to Libyan workers took control of a large number of reports that African mercenaries are companies, turning them into state-run enter- helping Muammar Qaddafi brutally prises. Retail and wholesale trading operations quash a nation-wide uprising against his were replaced by state-owned "people's super- 41-year rule… thousands (of migrant markets", where Libyans in theory could pur- workers) remain too scared to try to chase whatever they needed at low prices… make their way out of the country for While measures such as these undoubtedly bene- fear of being beaten or killed by rebel fited poorer Libyans, they created resentment mobs flush with animosity for anyone and opposition among the newly dispossessed. with dark skin and African features. The latter joined those already alienated, some Many experts – and African migrant of whom had begun to leave the country. By workers themselves – say the animosity 1982 perhaps 50,000 to 100,000 Libyans had stems from anti-African racism found gone abroad; because many of the emigrants throughout the Arab world. But some were among the enterprising and better edu- say the anger has been made much Gamal Abdel Nasser and Nikita Khrushchev (right), May cated Libyans, they represented a significant loss worse by Mr. Qaddafi's moves to buy 1964. Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal in 1955, which of managerial and technical expertise.” the loyalty of black Libyans from the led to the Suez war against Egypt by Britain, France and “Internal opposition came from elements of the south of the country as well as his dec- Israel in 1956, but the US did not support them, seeking to middle class who opposed Gaddafi's economic ades-long efforts to build Africa-wide outmanoeuvre its rivals. Nasser fell back on the Soviets. reforms and from students and intellectuals who patronage networks at great cost to the country's Arab majority.” ers from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Nigeria, Chad, criticized his ideology…The most serious chal- Mali and Niger have been killed, some of them lenges came from the armed forces, especially Twisted Imperialist propaganda were led into the desert and stabbed to death. the officers' corps, and from the RCC.” Black Libyan men receiving medical care in hospi- One could not get better in the way of twisted tals in Benghazi were reportedly abducted by Reactionary opposition to this re- Imperialist propaganda than that highlighted armed rebels. They are part of more than 200 above, so typical of the Goebbels style stuff we distribution of wealth African immigrants held in secret locations by are getting on behalf of the rebels now! So re- the rebels.”[9] So having seen the history of reactionary opposi- ports of African mercenaries helping Gaddafi tion to this redistribution of wealth (in contrast cause outbreaks of mob violence by our UN Universal Declaration of Human with Nigeria, for instance) we can now see the ‘revolutionaries’ “flush with animosity for any- Rights source of the revolt not as confused workers one with dark skin and African features”. And fighting unemployment and oppression (and the “anti-African racism found throughout the One wonders what kind of a revolution is possi- there are many of these, of course) but as dis- Arab world” is excused because Gaddafi is just as ble not only without but by oppressing the work- gruntled capitalists and tribal leaders repre- bad because, “his decades-long efforts to build ing class in 2011? But perhaps this civil war, sented by reactionary army officers who were Africa-wide patronage networks at great cost to helped into being no doubt by the events in either expropriated or denied a far greater cut of the country's Arab majority”. Like the ‘British Tunisia and Egypt, is in reality one of those the national cake that they felt their tribal and jobs for British workers’ reactionary campaign in ‘democratic revolutions’ which bestows stable social status entitled them to. And they hope to Britain it is not possible for the working class to parliamentary democracy on third world coun- get that as agents of Imperialism, they have advance their cause, let alone make revolution, tries too poor to afford it up to now? The com- made their willingness to do this very plain. “The under such reactionary ideological domination. munist programme for revolution, even in ad- provisional government has promised that who- vanced metropolitan countries, is called ‘the On March 14 Somaliland News published the ever assists them in this will be rewarded in any dictatorship of the proletariat’ not any type of following article on these events, LIBYA: Rebels post Gadaffi regime, a very dangerous offer to bourgeois democracy at all, simply workers execute black immigrants while forces kidnap the Imperialist plunderers from Europe who still democracy that suppresses the capitalists and others: have blood on their hands from Iraq and Af- removes their democratic rights. ghanistan (as well as the historical record of “In east Libya, African hunt began as towns and We are presuming that all readers who have slaughter across the world during the days of cities began fall under the control of Libyan re- made some study of Marxism know that the lack colonial empire)” Indeed in Libya “the lack of a bels, mobs and gangs. They started to detain, of parliamentary democracy is a symptom of revolutionary working class is a central factor insult, rape and even executing black immi- great economic and political crisis in a metro- why Libya was different to the other countries” grants, students and refugees. In the past two politan country and poverty and oppression admits Simon Hardy on 10/03/2011 in Workers weeks, more than 100 Africans from various Sub- imposed by world Imperialism in the semi- Power document A revolutionary civil war. Sahara states are believed to have been killed by colonial world. They must not swallow the lie Libyan rebels and their supporters.” In fact our ‘revolutionaries’ have turned viciously that it is as a result of corrupt and evil dictators on the working class and are killing black African “According to Somali refugees in Libya, at least who will not apply the basic humanitarian values workers wherever they get the opportunity. But five Somalis from Somaliland and Somalia were of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights note too how these appalling racist attacks by executed in Tripoli and Benghazi by anti-Gaddafi to its people. Even the ‘perfect’ parliamentary the rebels on the working class turns out to be mobs. Dozens of refugees and immigrants work- democratic system is only a cover for the dicta-

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 18 torship of the bourgeoisie. They will have read not the pro-Imperialist ‘democratically their Marx and know that a regime of rights is elected’ President Alassane Ouattara, who pie in the sky; rights are a product of competi- has gained the assistance of world Imperial- tion for scarce resources and no good to those ism in banning the export of cocoa to deny without the effective economic means to exer- his rival the opportunity to raise funds but cise them. We might point to India in contradic- the hold-out President Laurent Gbagbo who tion but we can recall the Dalit rat catchers there has nationalised the Ivory Coast's cocoa in- and the explanation of the father of the family dustry to rally the anti-Imperialist masses. who had absolutely no money at all and was so Truly in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the oppressed and discriminated against that he said Congo and the Ivory Coast Imperialism hath in a memorable TV programme, “I have to catch wrought its masterpieces. Perhaps they hope fifteen rats a day to feed my family”.[10] But he to surpass that in Libya with all their had far more rights that the citizen of Libya with ‘freedom’, ‘justice’ and ‘democracy’. the highest standard of living in Africa, compara- ble to the west in many ways, so his plight and 'Democratic revolution' that of his family should not merit our concern. There is no such thing as a 'democratic revo- This is how Marx makes the distinction between lution'. That was always the term for a bour- geois revolution. And the bourgeoisie defi- political emancipation, liberal rights and liber- Eleanor Roosevelt launches the UN Declaration of nitely are not revolutionary. The failure of ties, and human emancipation as explained by Universal Human Rights in 1948: Even the ‘perfect’ the ‘Springtime of Peoples’ in Europe in 1848 the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: parliamentary democratic system is only a cover for showed that but our modern-day Imperialist “Liberal rights and ideas of justice are premised the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. A regime of rights hacks still dub these uprisings the ‘Arab is pie in the sky; rights are a product of competition on the idea that each of us needs protection Spring’ to invoke the illusions and hope we from other human beings. Therefore liberal for scarce resources and no good to those without will forget the reality of cowardly capitulation the effective economic means to exercise them. rights are rights of separation, designed to pro- to feudal reaction in 1848 and Imperialism tect us from such perceived threats. Freedom on today. The bourgeoisie cannot lead a revolution tred. Let us assume, however, that on the mor- such a view is freedom from interference. What so there can be no such revolution now. And it is row England enters into a military conflict with this view overlooks is the possibility — for Marx, equally foolish to demand that the working class Brazil. I ask you on whose side of the conflict will the fact — that real freedom is to be found posi- leads this bourgeois democratic revolution, as the working class be? I will answer for myself tively in our relations with other people. It is to the Weekly Worker does. That is the democratic personally—in this case I will be on the side of be found in human community, not in isolation. dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry “fascist” Brazil against “democratic” Great Brit- So insisting on a regime of rights encourages us which Lenin rejected so decisively in the April ain. Why? Because in the conflict between them to view each other in ways which undermine the Theses in 1917 and which Trotsky replaced by it will not be a question of democracy or fascism. possibility of the real freedom we may find in the theory of Permanent Revolution. If England should be victorious, she will put an- human emancipation.”[11] other fascist in Rio de Janeiro and will place Petty bourgeois nationalists and Stalinists can double chains on Brazil. If Brazil on the contrary Thus the ignoring of the real conditions of the claim to be leading such anti-Imperialist revolu- should be victorious, it will give a mighty impulse masses in Libya and the championing of ideal- tions and can be supported up to a point as long to national and democratic consciousness of the ised ‘freedoms’ and ‘rights’ sets them up for as they fight Imperialism. When they side with country and will lead to the overthrow of the Imperialist super-exploitation. We understand Imperialism, like in the whole series of counter- Vargas dictatorship. The defeat of England will that the entire culture of the working class is in revolutions around the fall of the Berlin Wall, in at the same time deliver a blow to British Imperi- opposition to this path which fails to distinguish former Yugoslavia or in Libya and Iran now and alism and will give an impulse to the revolution- workers rights from bourgeois rights and work- simply demand ‘democracy’ they are demanding ary movement of the British proletariat. Truly, ers democracy from bourgeois democracy. John the right of international finance capital to pene- one must have an empty head to reduce world Rawls's 2001 book, Justice as Fairness is the trate those economies without let or hindrance antagonisms and military conflicts to the strug- modern day ideological attack on Marx’s great from troublesome opponents who may well be gle between fascism and democracy. Under all historic argument against this fraud of perpe- bloody dictator themselves but who nonetheless masks one must know how to distinguish exploit- trated on us by the liberal bourgeoisie and swal- defend some aspects of the living standards and ers, slave-owners, and robbers!”[13] lowed whole by so many anti-Marxist ‘socialists’. welfare of the masses. They are not Imperialism did not bring freedom to the citizens ‘our’ (Imperialism’s) bloody dictators so they Bonapartist regimes: Imperialism’s of the Congo 4,000 kilometres to the south of must be ousted. ‘Bad Boy’ returns to the fold Libya. Their drive for freedom from Imperialist exploitation was expertly blocked by the CIA Sincere Revolutionaries However these Bonapartist regimes (that is the assassination of their leader Patrice Lumumba in What do we say to the sincere revolutionists Marxist term for them), as in the USSR, also 1961.[12] This country is now devastated by a who want to overthrow Gaddafi and who are suppressed the working class, either making murderous civil was sponsored by rival Imperial- opposed to the reactionary agenda of their own trade unions illegal, or, more frequently incorpo- ist powers the better to extract its mineral leadership? There must be many such among rating them into the state intuitions. Strikes wealth, diamonds, gold and particular its coltan the rebels. Surely it is permissible to make an were and mainly are still illegal, in countries like (80% of the world’s supply), so necessary in the alliance ‘with the devil or his grand- Libya, Egypt, Tunisia etc. Strikers face long prison micro circuits of mobile phones and similar indis- mother’ (Trotsky) to achieve a progressive goal terms. If our Bonapartist were blocking the pensible gadgets. The 5.5 million dead, the like the overthrow of Gaddafi? And when it penetration of Imperialist finance capital into greatest casualties since WWII, has been almost comes to personal survival against Gaddafi’s their countries to a certain extent they were totally ignored in the west, not because there is onslaught is not any action justified in order to even more ruthlessly blocking the opposition to no mineral wealth, but because they have unre- fight another day? We can only say to such com- global Imperialism from developing to socialist stricted access to it whilst the central (client) rades what Trotsky said to the workers and op- and world revolution. government is unable to police its own disinte- pressed of Brazil in 1938: With the fall of the USSR in 1992 Libya was left grated ‘failed’ state because of the never-ending “In Brazil there now reigns a semi fascist regime dangerously exposed to the onslaught of neo- war. We know who to support in the Ivory Coast, that every revolutionary can only view with ha- liberal world Imperialism, now enormously

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 19 strengthened by that victory. Libya was framed Programme to Emulate the Method difficult, but it can be done. for the Lockerbie bombing of 1988 (Paul Foot sat Down With Cain Stalin and his Camarilla! through the whole of Megrahi's trial in the Neth- of Trotsky erlands in 2001 and condemned the prosecu- As mentioned we seek to emulate the Trotsky’s Down With the Rapacious Bureaucracy! tion's case was farcical). In fact the bombing was method in defence of the USSR. We can see that Long Live the Soviet Union, the Fortress of the carried out on the instructions of Iran via a Syr- he defended all the remaining gains of the Rus- Toilers! ian group in retaliation for the downing of the sian Revolution whilst urging a political revolu- Long Live the World Socialist Revolution![16] civilian Iran Air Flight 655 in the Persian Gulf in tion to depose the corrupt Stalinist bureaucracy. July 1987 with the loss of 290 civilian lives by an In this spirit we put forward the following pro- “But, fortunately, among the surviving conquests unrepentant US navy. It did not suit the US to gramme in defence Libya and the remaining of the October revolution are the nationalized implicate Syria and Iran when it needed their gains of the 1969 revolution against the attacks industry and the collectivized Soviet economy. support in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. So Gad- of world Imperialism and Gaddafi’s betrayals of Upon this foundation Workers’ Soviets can build dafi was forced to accept the blame and pay those initial progressive goals: a new and happier society. This foundation can- compensation. He destroyed such the "weapons not be surrendered by us to the world bourgeoi- For a Military United Front with the Libyan of mass destruction" as he possessed and re- sie under any conditions. It is the duty of revolu- army against the pro-Imperialist ITNC and stored diplomatic relations with the United tionists to defend tooth and nail every position against all CIA sponsored groups! States in 2006. He then embarked on a massive gained by the working class, whether it involves neo-liberal attack on Libyan workers, at the For Revolutionary Committees in all work- democratic rights, wage scales, or so colossal a behest of Imperialist companies, privatising, places, colleges and regions, linked up nation- conquest of mankind as the nationalization of sacking and decimating the state sector, up till ally! the means of production and planned economy. then the outlet for all university graduated in Those who are incapable of defending conquests For a national Constituent Assembly based on Libya. Unemployment reached 21% by 2009, these Revolutionary Committees. according to official statistics.[14] He signed an For a workers’ and peasants government! agreement with the EU to stop the flow of immi- grant workers to Europe, and carried out that For free and independent trade unions! agreement with considerably brutality. No immigration controls; equal rights and con- This is the appalling report of The Times Live on ditions for all immigrant workers! Gaddafi’s visit to Italy in August 2010: For workers control of workplaces and the Gaddafi seeks EU cash to prevent 'black Europe' oilfields; for substantial subsidies in food and essential goods, decent wage and conditions “Gaddafi's visit to mark the second anniversary for all workers and jobs for all; expropriate all of a friendship treaty with former coloniser Italy Imperialist assets! had already stumbled into controversy after he said Europe should convert to Islam. Speaking at For a Socialist Federation of North Africa and a ceremony late on Monday, standing next to the Middle East, full support for the revolutions Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Gaddafi in Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain! said his plan to "put an end to" illegal immigra- Victory to the strikers in Wisconsin and all tion was backed by Italy, but Berlusconi re- workers in the metropolitan countries! mained silent. Backing Libya's request for cash would be in the interests of Europe which other- For permanent revolution and the victory of the wise "tomorrow, with the advance of millions of socialist revolution! immigrants, could become (another) Africa," Build the Trotskyist world party of Socialist Gaddafi affirmed. Libya "is the entry door for Libya was framed for the Lockerbie bombing of Revolution! unwanted immigration" which should be 1988 (Paul Foot sat through the whole of Me- "stopped at the Libyan borders," he went on. grahi's trial in the Netherlands in 2001 and con- Endnotes demned the prosecution's case was farcical). In "Tomorrow Europe might no longer be European [1] Leon Trotsky, Moralists and Sycophants fact the bombing was carried out on the instruc- and even black as there are millions (of Africans) Against Marxism, Peddlers of Indulgences and tions of Iran via a Syrian group in retaliation for who want to come in," Gaddafi argued, describ- Their Socialist Allies, or the Cuckoo in a Strange the downing of the civilian Iran Air Flight 655 ing the migratory movements as "something Nest. (June 1939) http://www.marxists.org/ very dangerous"."We don't know what will hap- archive/trotsky/1939/06/moral.htm pen, what will be the reaction of the white and already gained can never fight for new ones. [2]http://thetruthiswhere.wordpress.com/ Christian Europeans faced with this influx of Against the Imperialist foe we will defend the 2011/03/02/world-cheers-as-the-cia-plunges-libya starving and ignorant Africans," the Libyan fire- USSR with all our might. However, the conquests -into-chaos/ brand said, adding: "We don't know if Europe of the October revolution will serve the people [3] Al Qaeda and the "War on Terrorism", by Mi- will remain an advanced and united continent or only if they prove themselves capable of dealing chel Chossudovsky, http://ww.globalresearch.ca/ if it will be destroyed as happened with the bar- with the Stalinist bureaucracy, as in their day index.php?context=va&aid=7718 barian invasions.”[15] they dealt with the Tsarist bureaucracy and the [4] STRATFOR, Jihadist Opportunities in Libya, bourgeoisie. Therefore we can lay a good deal of the respon- http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110223- sibility for the popularity of the uprising on Gad- …Advanced workers! Be the first to rally to the jihadist-opportunities-libya dafi. By his banning of the trade unions, making banner of Marx and Lenin which is now the ban- [5] http://www.scribd.com/doc/19117853/ strikes illegal, by his fostering racism, by his neo- ner of the Fourth International! Learn how to Minority-Imperialism-New. liberal policies he created the conditions for the create, in the conditions of Stalinist illegality, [6] Human Development Report, The Human De- Imperialist inspired and CIA sponsored leader- tightly fused, reliable revolutionary circles! Es- velopment Index - going beyond income, http:// ship of the rebels to gain control. But all of this tablish contacts between these circles! Learn hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/LBY.html. does not excuse our so-called leftists’ capitula- how to establish contacts through loyal and “Libyan Arab Jamahiriya's HDI is 0.755, which gives reliable people, especially the sailors, with your tion to Imperialism. the country a rank of 53 out of 169 countries with revolutionary co-thinkers in bourgeois lands! It is comparable data. The Human Development Index

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 20

of Arab States as a region increased from 0.398 in Soundararajan of the Mahindra resort chain. “Our archive/trotsky/1938/09/liberation.htm. 1980 to 0.590 today, placing Libyan Arab Jama- culture and customs are based on not harming any [14] Business News Print, Libya's Unemployment hiriya above the regional average. living beings. And besides rats are dirty creatures at 20.7 Percent. 2009-03-09, Libya's unemploy- [7] History of Libya under Gaddafi, http:// that only the very poor would eat.” ment rate is 20.74 percent according to recent en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ [11] http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/ census figures released recently by the authori- History_of_Libya_under_Gaddafi [12] “In a Leopoldville apartment, I heard a CIA ties. That would give Libya the highest jobless rate [8] http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r- man, who had had too much to drink, describe in the five-country Maghreb region of 80 million 8145.html. with satisfaction exactly how and where the newly people, where the proportions of workers without independent country's first Prime Minister, Patrice jobs in the four other states range from around 9 [9] http://somalilandpress.com/libya-rebels- to 15 percent, according to official figures. execute-black-immigrants-while-forces-kidnap- Lumumba, had been killed a few months earlier. others-20586 He assumed that any American, even a visiting "Libyans with jobs numbered 1.3 million, which student like me, would share his relief at the assas- represent 79.26 percent of the whole workforce. [10] “Rat meat is a healthy alternative to rice and sination of a man the United States government This means that the jobless rate in Libya is around grains,” Vijay Prakash of the Bihar state welfare considered a dangerous leftist troublemaker.” 20.74 percent," Oea newspaper reported as department told a press conference in Patna, “and Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost. New quoted by Reuters. http://www.libyaonline.com/ should be eaten by one and all. Rat and chicken York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. business/details.php?id=8161 have equal food values, not only in protein but throughout the entire spectrum of nutrition. I [13] Leon Trotsky, Anti-Imperialist Struggle is Key [15] Times Live, Aug 31, 2010 By Sapa-AFP http:// haven’t tried it myself, but my mother has and she to Liberation, An Interview with Mateo Fossa, www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article631492.ece/ finds it delicious. In fact, whoever has eaten rat (September 1938) http://www.marxists.org/ Gaddafi-seeks-EU-cash-to-prevent-black-Europe says it is more spongy and better than even archive/trotsky/1938/09/liberation.htm. [16] Leon Trotsky, Letter to the Workers of the chicken meat.” The welfare secretary’s words [13] Leon Trotsky, Anti-Imperialist Struggle is Key USSR, May 1940, http://www.marxists.org/ were greeted with dismay by listeners. “Indian to Liberation, An Interview with Mateo Fossa, archive/trotsky/1940/05/workers.htm culture is based on vegetarianism,” said Chef P. (September 1938) http://www.marxists.org/ The soft left’s foolish illusions in Benghazi’s rebels

By Ret Marut 3 April 2011 tions in Tunisia and Egypt. These revolutions of the new Egyptian regime was to reaffirm its co were dominated from the beginning by the mid- -oppression of the Gaza strip and its total col- Political Polemics dles classes and by opportunist politicians, to a laboration with the Israeli Zionist regime in this. far greater extent in Egypt than in Tunisia. They Of vital assistance in preventing this deepening sucked in big numbers of unemployed youth, of the revolution was the Muslim Brotherhood, Comment by on Lenin’s Tomb Blog: who became the political playthings of these who were prepared to sponsor such flag burning opportunists. They had an agenda; to use the “Even if the USA now departs the scene, they in angry demonstrations in the past in response radicalisation of the masses, the explosion of have stuck around - and bombed - long enough to Zionist outrages, Lebanon, the bombing of their suppressed outrage, for their own political to undermine the revolution; to drain it of, as you Gaza, etc. But to sponsor such events now in the ends; to allow a more ‘democratic’ and therefore call it, emancipatory content and turn it into a midst of this revolutionary upsurge would be to better-functioning capitalist society, to allow civil war. Gaddafi now has his anti-Imperialist unleash the full force of the revolution; hence more successful penetration of global finance cred boosted enough to politically undermine the caution and conservatism of the Brotherhood capital from the US and EU the better to exploit opposition in areas under his control; the rebels and the constant warnings from the Imperialist the working class. are pushing aside the popular militias in favour of mass media of the dangers of an Islamic funda- the professional forces led by former Gaddafi There were two barriers to this ambition, the mentalist takeover of the revolution. The fear of military leaders. The popular, political impetus existing regimes and the working class. The re- Cairo’s fifteen million who could annihilate the has been frozen in aspic, as it were, pushed aside gimes have shown their flexibility on instructions entire capitalist order in hours was palpable. by a conflict within the ruling class of Libya.” from Obama after initial fierce resistance so the But in that chaos the only force who could take problem now remaining is how to manoeuvre he whole thread of this argument is command to carry the revolution forwards was themselves into power without awaking the based on two false premises: Egypt’s powerful organised working class, in sleeping giant of the working class, particularly constant militant struggle for some five years 1. That there is something called a the Egyptian working class, and thus subvert the now. And when they stirred in mass strike action ‘democratic revolution’ or ‘Arab revolu- T revolutionary potential of the movement. Mubarak went and the regime almost immedi- tion’ spreading in this whole region and every One phenomenon has been remarkable by its ately adapted its profile and introduced some country’s conflicts are basically national manifes- relative suppression in these ‘revolutions’ (so far reforms, the better to survive. But neither did tations of this same pan-Arab phenomenon. not progressed beyond pre-revolutionary upris- the working class struggles make their connec- 2. That the Libyan and maybe Syrian ings) which has rendered them ideologically tions with the Palestinians and anti-Imperialism “revolutions” had an “emancipatory content” flaccid from the outset; there has been no mass in general. The long dominance of the pro- from a ‘popular militia’ with a ‘popular political burnings of the US and Israeli flags and almost no regime trade union bureaucratic leadership had impetus’ from the beginning which may or may portraits of Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (we inculcated a syndicalist, workerist culture which not now be gone in Libya because of the bomb- have heard of just one) carried by the masses, ignored the Palestinians, in the name of opposi- ing but whose revival we must fervently wish and not even in Cairo. There was therefore no consis- tion to Islamic fundamentalism, and the newly work towards. tent solidarity expressed with the oppressed emerging independent trade unions have not The character of the revolutions in Palestinian masses and they did not develop into proved capable of overcoming this. a rush to the border to liberate the besieged Tunisia and Egypt Assisting the bureaucracy in this separation of inhabitants of Gaza as every leftist and revolu- militant trade unionism and revolutionary anti- Let us first look at the character of the revolu- tionary had hoped would be the first task of any Zionism and anti-Imperialism was the fact that revolution in Egypt. In fact one of the first actions Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 21 this latter was practically monopolised by the revolution in distinct and separated Brotherhood and there were a big proportion of stages, which will herald ultimately working women in the cotton industry. These did the death of the revolutionary up- not want the ideological subordination of women surge if this counter-revolutionary that the Brotherhood represented. It is therefore theory is not overcome. vital to fight for the working class movement in This fact that anti-Imperialism did the shape of the new independent trade union not ideologically dominate was a federation, the Egyptian Federation of Independ- weakness that was to prove debili- ent Trade Unions, champion the cause of tating as events unfolded in Libya. women’s oppression and equally the cause of the Because if anti-Imperialism, which oppressed Palestinians in Gaza and the West had shown itself at times by sup- Bank. [1] But the US AFL-CIO and the Interna- port for the Palestinian masses and tional Labor Organization (ILO) are working over- anti-Zionism, was not an indispen- time to ensure that does not happen. sable part of this revolutionary Powerful anti-Imperialist sentiments upsurge how bad could pro- A public manifestation of anti-Zionism in the revolution: The Imperialism be, provided we ac- Israeli flag on Mubarak’s forehead links him with Zionism. The collaboration between the secular pro- cepted this was just a first stage; a Imperialist Mohamed Mustafa ElBaradei and ‘democratic revolution’? Not so bad at all the power. Our current jokers are telling us that what he represented and the Muslim Brother- Imperialist mass media was able to shout, this outright, self-declared reactionary pro- hood has so far succeeded in suppressing these really was a ‘democratic revolution’ against all Imperialists are leading this so-called revolution powerful anti-Imperialist sentiments, which have the bad local despots, close friends or inconsis- and implicitly that the movement is so powerful emerged at times showing they are deeply held tent foes of Imperialist interests alike. As for that that it can do away with the need for conscious amongst the working class and oppressed in tyrant Gaddafi (foremost opponent of Zionism in revolutionary leadership entirely and be repre- Egypt and Tunisia and throughout the region. the whole region), forget about anti-Imperialism, sented adequately by its open opponents. A Their dominance would be heralded by far more what we need is “freedom, justice and democ- more foolish political scenario is impossible to flag burning and the portraits of Nasser and racy” and once we get that we can think about imagine. Some even warn us not to put any trust chanting of “down with US Imperialism, down the bigger picture later. Gaddafi is “Imperialism’s in them (but, of course, do not fight to overthrow with Zionism, long live the memory of Nasser”. strongman in the region”, one former leftist them, we cannot change horses in mid-stream, Then the Permanent Revolution would be emerg- confidently assured us just as they were about to they are ‘democrats’ after all, are they not?). ing in full flight, then revolutionary Trotskyism bomb him. One wonders what they do to their These former leftists are attempting to perpe- would be vindicated and the intervention of a enemies if this is what they do to their friends. trate wholesale fraud on the world working class. revolutionary socialist Trotskyist party would be That is how the Imperialist mass media propa- Workers Power facilitated by events. But the ideological grip of gated a separate and distinct stage in this revolu- the collaboration of the pro-Imperialist secular- The SWP and the SP are to the left of Workers tion. Outrageously, in the name of the ‘wider Power on Libya, both being unwavering in oppos- ists and the pro-Imperialist Islamists (whose anti- revolution in the region’ we were asked by so- Imperialism has now shown itself to be purely ing military intervention. Workers Power gave us called orthodox Trotskyists to swallow all of this this analysis by Pater Main on 19/3/2011: opportunist, as distinct from that of the masses) and not make the connection with the worldwide has proved strong enough so far to blunt the socialist revolution that Lenin made with the “Victory to the Libyan Revolution!” revolutionary trust of the Egyptian masses and April Theses and Trotsky and genuine Trotskyists “The rebellion against Gadaffi's dictatorship that of the rest of the region. have made ever since via the theory of Perma- deserves unconditional support and that is not And that was the great fear of Imperialism and nent Revolution. Instead we must forget about altered by the UN decision. Those who oppose their stooges in the region; the ideologues of our whole history of the fight for world revolu- powerful states have the right to get hold of arms Imperialism constantly propagated against this tion and the plight of the oppressed Palestinians wherever they can and to take advantage of any by warning of the dangers of Islamic fundamen- and all the others and accept the humanitarian weaknesses in their oppressors' situation. That talism (which they deny entirely in Libya). The claptrap of world Imperialism’s mass media as remains true even where the weaknesses are the entry onto the stage of the multi-million op- the genuine article. We must concentrate instead result of Imperialist action. If, under cover of the pressed masses had of necessity to contain Is- on building, not socialism in a single country but no-fly zone, Libyan insurgents and revolutionaries lamic prejudices along with anti-Imperialism, to democratic capitalism in a single country or at can retake positions, undermine the morale or reject the whole movement because of this fear best in a single region via the ‘democratic’ or the loyalty of Gadaffi's troops and even advance was to reject the revolution; that was how its ‘Arab revolution’ as our first stage. on the capital, Tripoli, that is a step forward for entry had to be announced. The ideological collapse from the standpoint of the Libyan revolution and should be wel- The Muslim masses would naturally look to the orthodox Trotskyism of those self professed comed.”[2] organised working class as leaders because they Trotskyists who took this line could not be It is would certainly be welcomed by world Impe- constitute a big part of their numbers and are the greater. They completely ignore the fight for rialism and every reactionary state in the Gulf. only really revolutionary force that can take the ideological leadership of the masses, have ac- But what of the politics of the leadership and revolution to its conclusion. Therefore they cepted outright reactionaries as leading a where it was going politically and what about would be directed in the direction of revolution- ‘democratic revolution’ far better than the much those black workers? This has escaped Workers ary Trotskyism and Permanent Revolution. That maligned Michel Pablo, Ernest Mandel or Gerry Power entirely; another advocate of the anti- is only in a global struggle against the dominance Healy ever did. They, after all, chose leftist oppo- Trotskyist stagiest notion of the ‘democratic of world Imperialism and international finance nents of Stalinism and Imperialism in the begin- revolution’ and the ‘Arab revolution’. No worries capital can this revolution succeed. That is lodged ning as adequate substitutes for revolutionary the ‘Libyan revolution’ (more of the same) is in the consciousness of the masses; they realise Trotskyism to carry forward the objectively un- proceeding swimmingly, or would be if our plans, their global dependence on world trade and folding world revolution, at least until the late and those of the Benghazi reactionaries and finance capital. That is why ‘democratic revolu- 70s when Healy picked Arafat and Saddam Hus- world Imperialism, were not being thwarted by tions’ and ‘the Arab Revolution’ are fraudulent sein and he, the USFI and others backed the that ‘dictator’ Gaddafi and his brainwashed fol- conceptions, alien to Trotskyism. They are all fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini, who propa- lowers. Their former comrades in Permanent versions of socialism in a single country, of a gated anti-Imperialism as the source of their Revolution have no doubts about supporting the

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 22 reactionary rebels: “Libya: Imperialists move to be sure that they would have been shown regu- control uprising (10 March 2011) larly on prime time television. We have seen no Before this Simon Hardy had acknowledged a few such proof. A UN fact-finding mission could have problems in: very rapidly set the record straight, and the Secu- rity Council could then have acted on the basis of “Libya - a revolutionary civil war” [3] factual information rather than of claims by “The lack of a revolutionary working class is a rebels seeking international aid for their central factor why Libya was different to the cause.”[4] other countries.” Might be connected with those You see comrades by ‘democracy’ the Imperial- murders of black workers, Simon. And anyway ists mean the right of finance capital to penetrate we had a very adequate substitute; those CIA- that economy at will and exploit its people and Simon Hardy, WP’s Tariq Ali: “The overriding sponsored reactionaries will do the job just as rob its natural resources. If we had a real suc- well. “As the fighting rages in Libya sinister forces question in Libya today is not “Who are the cessful revolution in any or all of these countries in the western world gather” Indeed they do, imperialists attacking?” It is “How can the Libyan it would not be called a ‘democratic revolution’ Revolution succeed in overthrowing Gaddafi's Simon, those CIA agents plotting with their Impe- at all, but the dictatorship of the proletariat. And rialist sponsored clients in Benghazi we suppose? regime?” Trotsky: “The victory of the Negus, it would have to do many of the things that that however, would mean a mighty blow not only at Well no. Simon, in a statement that puts Workers old dictator Gaddafi has done in the past to en- Italian imperialism but at imperialism as a whole, Power well to the right of the SWP and the So- sure survival. That is it would have to execute the and would lend a powerful impulsion to the cialist party and close to the pro-imperialists of counter-revolutionaries, the CIA agents and their rebellious forces of the oppressed peoples. One the AWL, blazing the path for the United Front of unfortunate deluded and confused followers just must really be completely blind not to see this." Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy demanded his like the Bolsheviks. With the working class in the own imperialist United Front on 26/3: “The saddle it would be the majority class and would you are a friend.” Krasniqi, who was recently overriding question in Libya today is not “Who not suppress workers’ organisations as he has elected to the Kosovo parliament, described his are the imperialists attacking?” It is “How can the done, but ensconce them as the ruling class. former KLA comrade Thaci as “the head of the Libyan Revolution succeed in overthrowing Gad- mafia here”.”[7] And it would be the victim of vicious lying Imperi- dafi's regime?” A united front with Gaddafi in this alist propaganda, just as the early Soviets were, Gaddafi is a bourgeois nationalist who is clearly situation would be literally impossible... Within just as Stalin’s regime was and China, Cuba, one of the most substantial opponents of Imperi- Libya, we oppose the calls on the imperialists to North Korea and Libya are today. We would have alism left, albeit in the interests of local, corrupt intervene but that does not prevent the forces of to sort out the truth from the lies, to defend the capitalists like his own family. The following story the democratic revolution taking advantage of gains of the revolutions whilst rejecting those puts this in context: “Singer Nelly Furtado has the impact of the imperialists' intervention leaderships who were merely protecting them as said that she will give away $1 million (£615,000) against Gaddafi. It would be bizarre, indeed, to the source of their own privileges. And there she was paid to perform for the family of Libyan refuse to continue the campaign against Gad- would be plenty soft left groups like Workers leader Muammar Gaddafi. The star said on Twit- dafi's repressive apparatus because it had been Power to swallow whole the lies and regurgitate ter she had given a private 45-minute show for weakened by imperialist action!” them for us with a leftist, ‘Trotskyist’ gloss. Gaddafi's "clan" in 2007 at a hotel in Italy.” So no In line with this outlook Simon regurgitates political support for Gadddafi and his regime but The Workers Power stuff is an incredible mass of Imperialists/rebel lying. Where is the footage of unquestionably a Military United Front with self contradictory nonsense, just like their line on them against both Imperialism and their local aircraft bombing civilians, where are the photo- the Balkans in the 1990s. The 'revolutionaries' graphs? Gaddafi is ‘murdering his own people’ agents, the rebels, who are clearly now one fight- who are led by reactionaries are fighting the ing force, one army with one agreed goal; in and was about to massacre the entire population reactionaries who are led by worse reactionaries, of Benghazi, we must believe and so he must be return for installing them as their puppet govern- it seems. There is no revolutionary working class; ment Imperialist finance capital gets Libya. bombed to save these innocent civilians. Pre- nevertheless this revolution is unfolding in a sumably his supporters are ‘guilty civilians’ who continuation of the struggles for 'democracy' and Lastly let us quash the argument that this is really don’t matter a lot. What really happened is an the ‘democratic revolution’ in Egypt and Tunisia, not about Imperialism seizing the oil wealth of armed uprising by Imperialist sponsored gangs where the working class is playing a vital role. Libya and the ‘democracy’ of finance capital. This attacked the government of the most egalitarian There is no mention that Gadaffi was a bulwark extract is from the What’s Left blog by Stephen and anti-Imperialist country in the Africa and the against Imperialist finance capital and Zionism Gowans. It makes clear things are more compli- Middle East and Workers Power supported it on just some puerile tut-tutting about the pro- cated than the ‘evil dictator’ Gaddafi line: the foolish notion that it was a fight for Imperialism of the leaders these ‘revolutionaries’ “The Heritage Foundation provides a guide to ‘democracy’. If you were really interested you unfortunately have got right now. how accommodating countries are to the profit- could have googled. The following piece by Diana This is how Workers Power managed to support making interests of US corporations and inves- Johnson Why are They Making War on Libya tors. Every year the foundation publishes an might have moderated your strident pro- the KLA on Kosovo, and ended up with Camp Index of Economic Freedom, which ranks coun- Imperialism: Bondsteel [5] and a US colony in the heart of Europe led by CIA sponsored gangsters with close tries on how open they are to exports and foreign “False Pretext Number One: "to protect civilians". ties to the Italian and Albanian mafia who made investment, how low their taxes are, how com- “The falsity of this pretext is obvious, first of all, their money harvesting the body parts of kid- mitted they are to protecting property rights, and because the UN Resolution authorizing military napped opponents and friends in a clinic in Alba- so on; in short, how strongly a country favours action "to protect civilians" was drawn up by nia. *6+ This is where support for ‘democracy’ led: foreign businesses and investors over its own people. Significantly, governments that are per- France – whose objective was clearly regime “Florin Krasniqi, a Brooklyn-based businessman change – and its Western allies. Had the real ennially targets of US government regime change who raised large amounts of money for the KLA efforts rank at or near the bottom of the index. concern of the UN Security Council been to and shipped high-powered rifles from the United "protect innocent lives" it would have, could This year’s list identifies the following 10 coun- States to the KLA, said he has personally com- tries as the least economically free (i.e., least have, should have sent a strong neutral observer plained to senior State Department officials mission to find out what was really happening in accommodating to foreign businesses), in order, about corruption and crime at the top levels of from worst to slightly better: Libya. There was no proof of rebel claims that the government in Kosovo but he said he is routinely Qaddafi regime was slaughtering civilians. Had dismissed. “You can be corrupted as hell,” Kras- North Korea, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Eritrea, Vene- there been visible proof of such atrocities, we can niqi said, “but as long as you keep the stability zuela, Myanmar, Libya, Democratic Republic of Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 23

Congo, Iran, Timor-Leste The dictator would like to drown the revolt in a just too silly for words; an idealistic and un- Seven of the bottom 10 (North Korea, Zimbabwe, blood bath. Our full and total solidarity goes to achievable aspiration for a bourgeois republic Cuba, Venezuela, Myanmar, Libya and Iran) are the Libyan people who should be given the means and a two stage revolution. the targets of open regime change operations by to defend themselves, the weapons which it They repeat as fact the obvious lies of the rebels: needs to drive out the dictator, to conquer free- the United States and its allies, carried out osten- “Such was the ferocity of this repression, employ- dom and democracy.” sibly because the targeted countries are not ing the Special Forces and foreign mercenaries, protecting human rights, threaten regional stabil- This is just pathetic nonsense from out ‘left turn- that its failure to intimidate and defeat the un- ity, or in the case of Libya, because the govern- ing’ NPA, as Workers Power so badly character- employed youth rebellion forced the military to ment is said to be attacking its own people. That split. The defection of the Generals who had long these countries happen to be considered the least been cronies of Gaddafi was forced only by the accommodating of foreign business profit- rebellion of the rank and file soldiers who refused making points to an ulterior motive on the part of to fire on the masses and were in turn executed Western governments to bring about regime by the Gaddafi forces.” change, and to use human rights and humanitar- ian rhetoric as a cover for pursuing the economic Where is the evidence for these lurid claims? interests of Western corporate and investor el- There is none because it is a complete lie. ites.” [8] “We call on the Arab revolution that is under way in Egypt and Tunisia, and is beginning to rise up The USFI, Fourth International in Algeria and in the Middle East, to immediately John McAnulty of the Irish Fourth International send material and military aid to the liberated group Socialist Democracy has repudiated his U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) and part of Libya to strengthen the revolution against reactionary comrade Gilbert Achcar as a "Cruise Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci now re- the regime’s extreme repression, to complete the Missile socialist” and many others have picked up signed He is “the head of the mafia here” says revolution and stop mass murder of workers on on this very significant move to the right of the Florin Krasniqi. an even greater scale.” USFI. [9] The British section, Socialist Resistance No need for that, Imperialism is on the case on has an article on March 6, 2011, Support the ised this group. The usual crap about ‘freedom your behalf. Libyan revolution! Gaddafi out! by ‘Terry’: and democracy’ as if the author had never turned a page of Trotsky or Lenin. “We call on the workers in the Imperialist coun- “Gaddafi takes control of the situation again, tries to take immediate steps to oppose the mili- with thousands of deaths, the process (of the Statement of the Liaison Committee tary intervention in whatever form in Libya. Impe- revolution) will be slowed down, contained or In the Statement of the Liaison committee of the rialism is the No 1 enemy of the Libyan people. even blocked. If Gaddafi is overthrown, the whole CWG (NZ) and HWRS (USA) Imperialism: Hands Gaddafi is a creature of Imperialism. His 1969 movement will as a result be stimulated and off Libya! The US and EU are planning a military revolution had the guise of a national socialist amplified. For this reason, all the ruling classes, intervention to protect their oil interests! (from liberation but in reality it installed a national all the governments, all the reactionary regimes the rebels??) we get the following: bourgeois crony capitalist regime to serve Imperi- of the Arab world are more or less supporting the alism.” Libyan dictatorship.” “Libya is on a knife edge poised between victori- ous workers revolution that can defeat both the And now the biggest lie: Obviously she has missed the newspapers and dictatorship and Imperialism, and turn the Arab “Imperialism is the No 1 enemy of the Libyan takes no heed of the ITN/Sky news telling us who Revolution into socialist revolution in the whole people. Gaddafi is a creature of Imperialism.” is supporting who in this conflict, she has totally region, and the counter-revolution that will halt, mistaking the intentions of Imperialism. Now the The Liaison Committee cannot see the contradic- reverse and defeat the Arab Revolution and pre- Italian Sinistra Critica (Critical Left), USFI section. tions between Imperialism and bourgeois nation- vent the formation of a United Socialist States of It slogans make clear its pro-Imperialist policies. alist regimes, the Leninist distinction between North Africa and the Middle East. The outcome We (i.e. Imperialism) must get rid of Gaddafi: oppressed and oppressor nations, and can imag- will depend on whether or not the international ine no good reason apart from subverting the “Gaddafi out! No to Imperialist military interven- working class can stop the US and EU Imperialists ‘revolution’ for them to sponsor the rebels. This tion!, No to the military intervention! No to the from invading Libya and imposing a new compli- is indeed becoming a very tangled web. The truth use of Italian bases for the military intervention!, ant national leadership. The aim of the Transi- is that what the Liaison Committee correctly We demand that the regime’s armed forces end tional National Council is to steer Libya during the labels a “national bourgeois crony capitalist re- repression and aggression!, Gaddafi must go and interim period that will come after its complete gime” is at severe odds with Imperialism because the people must freely decide their own future as liberation and the destruction of Gaddafi’s op- there is a very great deal left of the Libyan revo- in Egypt and Tunisia!” [10] pressive regime. It will guide the country to free lution of 1969 worth defending and the masses Whilst the whole article makes the totally unwar- elections and the establishment of a constitution now increasingly rallying to Gaddafi realise this. ranted assumption that the rebels are genuine for Libya.” [11] And the ranks of the rebels realise this also, they revolutionaries, despite their leaders, the last is This is a total capitulation to Imperialist propa- do not know why they are fighting, which is why just a sick joke. A “free election” for a bourgeois ganda, particularly the ridiculous notion that not they appear so cowardly and half-hearted in their parliament like we have in Iran and Afghanistan? only was there something called “the Arab Revo- struggle. Installing puppets for Imperialism is not Anti-Imperialist forces will naturally be prohib- lution” which was above class, but that it moved a strongly motivating ideal so they run away from ited from standing in this capitalist democracy forward of its own objective volition irrespective the first sound of gunfire. which is must be our goal now. This is an explicit of the leadership that it had and that the counter And now the slander directed at Socialist Fight repudiation of Trotskyism. -revolution was represented only by Gaddafi and and our fellow anti-Imperialist revolutionaries The French Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA) not world Imperialism. And why would they have (There isn’t any other kind!): have called for UN recognition of the reactionary to invade to impose “a new compliant national “All those who on the left who gave support to rebels as the government of Libya, in sync with leadership” when they already supposedly had Gaddafi in the name of Communism or Trotsky- Sarkozy: one? And the notion that the Imperialist- sponsored and CIA directed and funded ITNC was ism and were responsible for disarming the Lib- “Support for the Libyan people against the dicta- yan people in their long resistance to Gaddafi torship. The Libyan population which rose against going to “guide the country to free elections and the establishment of a constitution for Libya” is must be exposed and condemned. They share a Gaddafi faces today an outburst of fatal violence. large part of the blame for the failure to build a

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 24 revolutionary workers party in Libya and the some socialists have responded to this crisis by others states of the region to play a leading role putting their hostility to America above the lives in the Arab Revolution.” of the Libyan rebels. And this is a shameful dis- It is true that Gerry Healy and the WRP did ca- grace.” [13] pitulate to the Arab bourgeoisie and that the Every sentence and phrase of this is dripping in present-day WRP continues that line. But Healy’s pro-Imperialist chauvinist bigotry. We will leave most vociferous opponent before the 1985 split the reader to decide who is a shameful disgrace was Sean Matgamna of the AWL. He supported in here – Bradley is objecting to the pacifist Stop Imperialism against the same Arab bourgeoisie the War picket against Imperialist intervention! and he has continued the same line ever since. The Socialist Party and the SWP Although we totally denounced Vanessa Redgrave’s attempts to bring the AWL to court The Socialist Party too capitulated and sided with for this I and another Central Committee mem- the rebels, as we would expect but it made some Libya’s Economic Freedom Score outrages the ber in the post-split WRP refused an invite from correct demands in The Socialist, 3 March 2011. right-wing Heritage Foundation, but our soft Matgamna to speak at a public meeting de- If these demands, for committees to represent lefts regurgitate war propaganda that there is nouncing Redgrave because we would not be the workers, for independent trade unions, for a nothing left to defend. associated then or now with an attack on Gaddafi constituent assembly, etc. were equally pitched at Gaddafi’s supporters and called for a united tion except in its proxy form of the ITNC: in from the right. The nonsense about “disarming online Issue: 2243, 19 March 2011 they casti- the Libyan people’ from those who are now the front against the rebel leaders then they would form part of a programme for the Permanent gated Obama for his lack of will in tackling Gad- spokespeople for Imperialism is just total non- dafi: “If the US’s motive was to see the revolution sense as is the stuff about the “Arab Revolution”. Revolution. As it is they are simply a cover for Imperialism. succeed, it would release Gaddafi’s frozen assets to the interim government. But “No-fly zone’ is no The Alliance for Workers Liberty Although they back the rebels, they do the more way to free Libya”. However “People are pre- Now we come to the Alliance for Workers Liberty leftist thing of also opposing Imperialist interven- pared to die for this revolution and they are fight- (AWL). With some trepidation we opened the tion. A survey of the left will show that only the ing for their freedom, not for the Imperialist page and our worst expectations were met. Here AWL supports this, Workers Power is ambiguous, control of Libya.” Sometimes “people” are it is: saying the rebels are right to take advantage of conned by their leaders, we would suggest. But, the bombing that they demanded but which “But there is real hope and excitement in the free in memory of Paul Foot, they acknowledged that Workers Power oppose. Logically the AWL are cities. It may be that a potential No Fly Zone sometimes Imperialism too can be bad: “He also right, then. If the ‘revolution’ is to succeed it can could tip the balance in the favour of the rebels agreed to pay compensation to the families af- only do so with the assistance of ‘the interna- — in that sense we should not take a stand fected by the Lockerbie bombing, and accepted tional community’ so let us go with that. Hold on, against such a policy, even if we would not criti- the false conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi— treachery say our leftists, the Imperialists inter- cally support it with all that that that implies. the Libyan who was framed for the bomb- vened only to subvert the revolution not help it. ing.”*15+ Let us look towards the elimination of the Qad- Nonsense, the AWL might truthfully say, these dafi regime and its crimes. The vengeance of people made their politics clear from the outset, The Permanent Revolution Collec- history is more powerful than the vengeance of they never wavered in their pro-Imperialism and tive, CoReP the most powerful General Secretary, as Trotsky we have never wavered in our support of them, wrote in similar circumstances. Solidarity with the we are the real social Imperialist, you are only One group of comrades, the CoReP, with whom revenge of the Libyan working class!” [12] our shamefaced imitators. we have had fraternal relations, asked this of us: Martyn has no illusions in what the leadership of “We agree to support Gaddafi against Imperialist But the SP spot another problem. the ‘rebels’ will do to the workers, nevertheless armies. But we cannot agree to support any he has picked his (pro-Imperialist naturally) side “Gaddafi can correctly portray the ITNC as being bourgeois despot coming from the army so he is for bombing by Imperialist forces – won’t in the lap of the western powers who would like against his own people’s upsurge, as Gerry did in take a stand against it – but will not critically to exploit Libya more. At the same time even name of SF well before Imperialist intervention. endorse it either. And he has the cheek to invoke western journalists are reporting that many in If there was a real revolution led by Nasser or Trotsky’s name for this anti-working class bile! western Libya fear what would happen if Gaddafi Gaddafi, who needs the permanent revolution was overthrown; would Libya tend to break up strategy and a revolutionary workers party Here is the AWL in the shape of Clive Bradley on like Somalia, would fundamentalism arise, what there?” 20 March, 2011 would happen to the large social advances in “His own people’s upsurge” was a putsch organ- “But the rebel forces in Benghazi greeted the UN health, education, etc made over the last 40 ised by extreme reactionary leaders, whose po- decision with jubilation. Benghazi is a city where years? Admiral James Stavridis's testimony to the litical credentials these comrades did not even Qaddafi has, in the past, conducted the mass US Senate that rebel forces in Libya show think worth checking. Because obviously this public execution of oppositionists. They knew "flickers" of possible al-Qa'ida presence could objectively unfolding revolution had no need of what they could expect if Qaddafi triumphed. help make Gaddafi seem a 'lesser evil' to an alli- revolutionary leaders, reactionary ones were just And it seemed likely that Qaddafi was on the ance of the western powers and fundamental- as good. And then they accuse us of capitulating verge of defeating the revolution, or at least ists.” [14] to Nasser and Gaddafi! Of course the Socialist inflicting terrible slaughter. To oppose – that is, There is something to defend in Libya which Fight article did not give uncritical support to demonstrate against, and make a serious effort these rebels might be endangering, they imply. In Gaddafi against the rebels, the support was criti- to prevent – the limited military action against fact they are immediately threatening all the cal and against the internal agents of Imperialism Qaddafi, is to tell the rebels in Benghazi “you’re gains of the 1969 revolution. But what revolution as well as their allies, the Imperialists bombers on your own.” What socialist would want to send is the SP defending? They manage to fudge this themselves. out such a message? Only one not deserving the because they are political enough to spot some These ‘revolutionaries’ (some still follow The name. But what issue of principle should make us problems coming up and do not want to be demonstrate against the one thing which might Guardian in designating them thus) called in stranded on the wrong side completely. prevent untold slaughter, prevent Qaddafi’s Imperialist bombing of their own country and immediate bloody victory, and therefore a crush- We get capitulation to Imperialist propaganda people, have made the country’s oil resources ing defeat for the wave of revolutions?...instead, from the SWP; opposed to Imperialist interven- available to Imperialism in return for puppet

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 25 status, just as their ideologue whose flag they WRP, communists wholeheartedly backed the wave, King Idris, did up to 1969. Neither did they revolutionary democratic upsurge - the revolu- enquire why these ‘revolutionaries’ felt it neces- tion - in Libya against the rotten regime, just as sary to slaughter all those black workers. We we did in the entire Arab world. We want to see would suggest it was because their leaders knew all these regimes swept away by popular power, their racism and wished to encourage it by talk with the working class securing hegemony over of ‘black mercenaries’ to ensure that the work- the demonstrations, protests and uprisings.” ing class could not influence events in any way. Again that non-class and above class democratic Of course politically the working class could not revolution – “the revolution” which can be going have any independent existence when one in any direction, with any allies fighting for any group of workers were killing another, minority cause as long as it is in pursuit of “extreme de- group. The working class was thereby ideologi- mocracy”. It allows us to forget about the cally and politically defeated at the outset of this ‘democracy’ of the black workers lynched by Unlike in Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, there is no ‘revolution’. these ‘democrats’ because they see what these discernable leftist voice in this ‘revolution’. These comrades think that there is still a huge reactionaries real intentions are; to become a political difference between the Imperialist war puppet government on the basis of betraying They say: planes that bomb Gaddafi’s army and his civilian their own national interests and selling out the “It was a major mistake for Gadaffi not to place supporters and the rebels. But they are obvi- remaining gains of the 1969 bourgeois revolu- himself and Libya in the front line of those sup- ously part of the same war machine and are tion. And the real ’democracy’ contested here is porting the revolutions that began in Tunisia and trying to win by following up the bombing as the right of finance capital to exploit the Libyan spread to Egypt. In fact, he opposed them when Imperialism’s foot soldiers, unfortunately for economy and rob its oil without all those he should have shown solidarity with them, and Sarkozy et al not very good ones. ‘undemocratic’ restrictions imposed on it by that then urged the Libyan masses to say what The CoReP statement complains that “The threat ‘evil dictator’ the ‘madman’ Gaddafi. changes they wanted to see in Libya, as part of of interference of the Western armies” … has The real scabs in this conflict are not the WRP the struggle for a socialist North Africa” (The “politically strengthened Gaddafi.” That might and those Maoists and pan-Africanists who News Line: Editorial, 23 February) be because he is fighting Imperialism and the capitulate to the Bonapartist regime of Gaddafi But Gaddafi opposed these revolutions because rebels are supporting it. It makes a number of but all those who call for the defeat of Gaddafi he is a bourgeois nationalist; asking him to urge democratic demands, seemingly unaware that by the rebels and world Imperialism like the “the Libyan masses to say what changes they some of these have already been realised and AWL. Those who equivocate on this by ignoring wanted to see in Libya, as part of the struggle for under immediate threat from the Imperialist- the political character of the rebels in the name a socialist North Africa” is to suppose he is some sponsored rebels, whom they are supporting. On of ‘the democratic revolution’ are at best Imperi- type of socialist or a blunted instrument of the the emancipation of women for instance, Libya alism’s unwitting stooges. Those who take a socialist revolution, a very ‘Pabloite’ error. Politi- has the most progressive laws on women’s neutral stance between the rebels and Gaddafi cally Gaddafi is the same as Chiang Kai Shek and rights in the whole of the region. And we have despite correctly analysing the character of the Trotsky’s attacks on Stalin before the 1927 mas- seen above the real relationship between fi- rebels are also unable to fight Imperialism by sacre of the Shanghai soviet equally apply to the nance capital and Libya, it is severely inhibited siding with and relating to the oppressed masses WRP today. and it wants its ‘freedom and democracy’ and it by correct transitional demands. The statement by the Revolutionary Marxist is confident that the rebels will give it to them. They were opposed by the African Union, the League, Greek section of the WRP ICFI still has The CoReP declares for a socialist revolution. But only group of countries against the bombing of many old Healyisms in it (e.g. references to the supporting the forces of Imperialism in the form Libya and for the very good reasons. [16] above class ‘Libyan Revolution’, Russia a workers of the rebels can only strengthen the hand of This desperate anti-Imperialist stance by Africa state, etc) but it is still much better in terms of reaction. The CoReP concludes: as shown by the squirming of Jean Ping, chair- the independence of the working class: “Thus, Libya workers will be able to defeat the man of the Standing Commission of the AU in “No to the Imperialist interventions in Libya! Shut bourgeois dictatorship and contribute to the this BBC hardtalk video. How is he to defend down the Souda Bay military base!, Forward with Socialist Federation of the Middle East and North Africans from the wrath of world Imperialism the permanent revolution in the Arab countries! Africa where Arab, Berber, Turkish, Jewish, and appease Imperialism at the same time? For the victory of the socialist revolution!” Kurds, Saharawis, Persian, etc. will remove all Africa is humiliated by world Imperialism yet And it does not call for victory to Gaddafi. In- the borders inherited from colonialism.” again. [17] stead it correctly charges Gaddafi with some Without fighting global Imperialism, correctly The ‘harder’ left: the WRP, the responsibility for the uprising (although the identifying the local agents of Imperialism and Sparts, IG, IBT and SEP quote does indicate disappointed illusions): making a Military United Front bloc with Gaddafi “This uprising is due to the reactionary pro- against it and its local agents the revolution The stance of the WRP in calling for victory to Imperialism policies of the Gadaffi regimes in cannot advance at all. You are only contributing Gaddafi has raised the hackles of many leftists. recent years. This regime allowed the Imperialist to the political confusion and lining up with But almost all these attacks are from the right. A oil companies back into Libya and imposed priva- every Imperialist power and every reactionary leftist criticism would point out that the line tisations; this brought riches to those sections of Gulf state who were slaughtering their own does not counterpose the interests of the work- the ruling class doing business with the Imperialist genuine revolutionaries. ing class in Libya to this leftist bourgeois nation- companies, while it drove workers and youth to alist, who has moved to the right in recent years. And the CPGB unemployment and poverty. Gadaffi’s other big They do make these criticisms but there is no mistake was his support for Ben Ali and Mubarak. But the CPGB are absolutely awful. Long time political clarity; victory to Gaddafi certainly im- But the working masses in Libya must defend the leader Eddie Ford in Weekly Worker 858 March plies that he is capable of lasting victory and gains and achievements of the 1969 Revolution 24 says the following: puts faith in him that he will not sell out. Sup- against Imperialism and the oil companies.” posing he does, would it not have been better to “Imperialism out, down with the Gaddafi regime. Whilst correctly calling: Western intervention in Libya - and the rest of urge the Libyan workers to defend the gains the Arab world - aims to subvert popular power made since 1969 with their own methods of “To fight in a United Revolutionary Front against and the Arab revolution. Unlike scabs such as the struggle and organs of power against Gaddafi, the leaders of the reactionary uprising and at the although in temporary alliance? same time they must campaign for the political

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 26

power of a workers’ and small peasants’ revolu- suddenly transformed from neutrality to opposi- RecentTheTestOfLibya.html tionary alliance” (The News Line: March 2011 ). tion by the dropping of NATO bombs? This is a [10] Sinistra Critica (Critical Left), Gaddafi out! No to The Statement by the ICL (Sparts) on 20 March, cover for the initial flinch. Imperialist military intervention! http:// “Defend Libya Against Imperialist Attack!” calls In Libya North’s SEP advocates taking a perma- www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article2042 for the defence of Libya against Imperialist at- nent neutral stance between Gaddafi and the 20th March 2011. tack, is correct on who the ‘rebels’ are and then rebels because neither of these can represent [11] Class Struggle 93, http://www.scribd.com/ shows the old Shachtmanite weakness on Impe- the working class. Whilst correctly opposing the doc/51948850/Class-Struggle-93 rialism we saw in its refusal to call for the defeat Imperialist bombing he refuses to make a Mili- [12] Martyn Hudson Libyan rebels in retreat, http:// of the British expeditionary force in the Malvinas tary United Front without political support with www.workersliberty.org/story/2011/03/16/libyan- war to take just one example. Here is the quote: Gaddafi even now (which all the Spart family rebels-retreat, 16 March, 2011 “Prior to the current attack, the conflict in Libya correctly do at that late stage) but he agrees with *13+ Libya: no illusions in West but “anti-intervention” had taken the form of a low-intensity civil war, them that there is initially ‘no side’ in the conflict opposition is abandoning rebels http:// www.workersliberty. heavily overlaid by tribal and regional divisions, with the direct agents of Imperialism, the reac- between the Tripoli-centred government of tionary ‘rebels/revolutionaries’ of Benghazi. [14] Paul Foot Lockerbie - The flight from Justice, Pri- strongman Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi and This leaves him to the right of the Sparts and vate Eye special report, http://thepiratebay.org/ torrent/5063495/Lockerbie_- Imperialist-backed opposition forces concen- takes a very wrong policy to its logical conclusion _The_flight_from_Justice__Private_Eye_special_report trated in the country’s eastern areas. Workers which chimes in with the interests of imperialism by a ‘purist’ reductionalism. This dismisses the [15] The Socialist newspaper, Defend the Libyan revolu- Leninist distinction between oppressed and tion, No to Imperialist intervention http:// www.socialistparty.org.uk30 March 2011. oppressor nations and leaves the theory of Per- manent Revolution as a flaccid propaganda [16] The AU consists of 53 African states (without weapon with no application to the real world. Morocco) formed in 1999 in Sirte on the initiative of Gaddafi. He had repeatedly proclaimed his "vision for a The rebels were prepared to give the Imperialists strong and united Africa." everything in return for their patronage. Had [17] African Union 'ignored' over Libya crisis http:// they won in that first push Imperialism would news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/ have gained a very cheap victory. Failure to make hardtalk/9436093.stm. 25 March 2011. a bloc without political support to Gaddafi at this [18] statement of the International Bolshevik Tendency stage meant that the ‘Spart family’ and the SEP http://bolshevik.org/leaflets/ibt_2011-04- still had illusions in the rebels and were victims 01_libya.htm of the ‘humanitarian’ propaganda war. The Im- Black workers flee the racist rebel lynch mobs perialists and their lackeys throughout the world but; “The world’s most Imperial-dependent, ill- recognised their friends at once and chose sides disciplined and whining “liberation movement” without hesitation. The WRP is left Pabloite on Statement on the Omagh bomb is still blaming black “mercenaries” and soldiers Gaddafi, the Sparts, IG, and IBT initially choose Sinn Fein’s leader Gerry Adams wrote on from Chad for its failures in the field – that is, no side; they took a third campist position. The 11/4/2011: “There are political groupings which when they aren’t crying about not having a 24/7 SEP is third campist even now. But the soft left in present themselves as republican. These include umbrella of full-spectrum American dominance general are merely Imperialist stooges but with a Republican Sinn Féin, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, the Republican Network for Unity of the skies.” Lynch Law and Summary Execu- wide range of political differences. tions in Rebel-Held Libya By Glen Ford and Éirigí. These are all entirely legitimate politi- Endnotes cal groupings... But since the murder of Ronan Kerr they have all put their heads down. I am Vanguard No. 976 (18 March), newspaper of the [1] Conference officially forms new – and growing – U.S. section of the ICL, noted that “Marxists independent union federation, 03/03/2011, http:// appealing to them all to call for an end to these presently have no side in this conflict.” www.egyptworkersolidarity.org/?p=309. armed actions. They need to make it clear that these actions have to stop.” [2] Peter Main, Victory to the Libyan Revolution! In their statement of 1 April the International Socialist Fight deplores attempt by Adams to http://www.fifthinternational.org/content/victory- Bolshevik Tendency takes the same line as the slander his political opponents and states: libyan-revolution, 19/03/2011. Sparts and the internationalist Group: “We are completely politically opposed to act of “Unlike in Egypt and Tunisia, where the protests [3] Simon Hardy: Libya - a revolutionary civil war http:// individual terrorism and are absolutely certain www.fifthinternational.org/content/libya-revolutionary were mass popular expressions of opposition to that this is not the way to mobilise the mass of -civil-war, 10/3/2001. brutal oppression, the conflict between Qaddafi the nationalist community or to defeat Loyalist loyalists and the rebels headquartered in Ben- *4+ “Why are They Making War on Libya? By Diana reaction or to convince Protestant workers of ghazi amounted to a small-scale civil war be- Johnstone. http://www.globalresearch the need for a united Ireland. tween qualitatively equivalent capitalist factions. [5] Wikipedia, Camp Bondsteel, http:// However we do not “condemn” this, liberation Marxists take no side in such conflicts, although en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Bondsteel fighters have the right to chose their own meth- we of course oppose the killing of civilians by the [6]Wikipedia, Organ theft in Kosovo, http:// ods of struggle. Their aims are a united Ireland, combatants. The entry of the NATO powers, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_theft_in_Kosovo. expulsion of the blood-soaked British army of occupation from Ireland and the abolition of the however, transformed this conflict into a struggle [7] Kosovo's Mafia: How the US and allies ignore allega- border created by Britain in 1921. Page 11 sets between a neo-colonial country and several Im- tions of organized crime at the highest levels of a new the record right on the crimes of the British perialist powers (and their indigenous prox- democracy http:// Empire as does the horrific barbarism of British ies).”[18] nuckinfutsnyc.blogspot.com/2011/03/kosovos-mafia- how-us-and-allies-ignore.html. colonialism during the Kenyan liberation strug- But how could these two forces be termed, gle by the Mau Mau, now going through the “qualitatively equivalent capitalist factions”, the *8+ What’s Left blog By Stephen Gowans. Looking Out courts, also outlined on p. 11. Whilst fighting for for Western Business and Investor Rights: Why the one, Gaddafi’s government, was still defending a Socialist United Ireland ourselves, we recog- West Approves Military Interventions to Topple One the gains of the 1969 revolution, albeit in their nise these aims as entirely progressive and urge Arab Government and Prop Up Another, http:// own interests and by their own often reactionary gowans.wordpress.com March 28 2011 the ‘armed struggle’ republicans to change their methods. And how was the rebel’s political char- methods and mobilise their communities to fight [9] John McAnulty Socialist Democracyhttp:// acter and the attitude of revolutionaries to that politically for their aims alongside those fighting www.socialistdemocracy.org/RecentArticles/ the SF, the DUP and the ConDem cuts.”

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 27 Lars T Lih, Kautsky, Lenin and the CPGB By Ray Rising

“Those Bolsheviks who, like Kamenev, were the actual future of the ’undefined’ democracy opposed to Lenin were arguing that his opposi- in Russia at this time, i.e., revolution and Marxist Theory tion to the Provisional government was too counter-revolution implicit in the contending empty, too formal - too much like just sitting dual-power showing itself, academic have speculated and considered over a there saying that it is an Imperialist government. ’misunderstandings’ can be passed for good period, the last year or so, on the reason They asked: how do we get across the message coin and simple differences. why the CPGB/Weekly Worker has given so that an Imperialist government is bad? Let’s put much time and space to the investigative across some specific demands to expose this Did Lih ever read Trotsky’s ’History of the Rus- sian Revolution’? Did he dismiss altogether the Imethod and the, not so modestly invoked, reve- government. Let’s be more specific and help the multifarious archive basis of that enormous latory discoveries of Lars T Lih. Bolsheviks who are working in local soviets. work? Perhaps Trotsky’s earlier foresight Firstly, he suggested last year, that it was Karl So my argument about this whole debate is that (‘Permanent Revolution’, in theory and leader of Kautsky, who personally made it ‘apparent’ to it was a kind of misunderstanding. Lenin read in St Petersburg Soviet 1905, in practice) and im- Lenin the inspiration for his ‘April Theses’, by the papers about kontrol and got upset. When mediately on his arrival at Petrograd in May way of Kautsky’s article in ‘Die Neue Zeit‘, writ- hearing Lenin say that all that was needed was 1917, having a total attachment to the revolu- ing as he did at the time on the 1917 February patient explanation about the need for soviet tionary process in its actual making and success. rising in Russia. power, others responded by pointing out that Trotsky, is in Lih’s view (in this piece they were in a revolutionary situation and there unmentioned) an inconsequential absentee - Now we learn from this same professor that was a need to be doing things. That is the rather why so? Was that ’other’ essential leader (non- there were no essential differences between paradoxical aspect of this whole debate. These Bolshevik?), suitable for omission in this, his Lenin’s newly considered orientation, and that old Bolsheviks were accusing Lenin of being most authoritative of new appraisals. of Kamenev, Stalin, Zinoviev and other leading rather passive! And if you read some of what members of the central committee of the Bol- “…The power is taken over, at least in Petro- Lenin was saying then you can see why they shevik Party throughout the months between were wondering what their chief was actually grad. Lenin has not yet had time to change his March and October, save for ‘misinterpretation’ thinking. In any event, I think this debate is not collar, but his eyes are very wide-awake, even of the words vlast, kontrol and compromise. though his face looks so tired. He looks softly at as important as it is made out to be and that Is there really a ‘science’ in this work of Lih? If both sides were thinking along the same lines me, with that sort of awkward shyness that with so, what science can truthfully dissect and ana- him indicates intimacy. “You know,” he says and just trying to formulate a concrete strat- lyse Lenin’s conception of old-Bolshevism from hesitatingly, “from persecution and a life under- egy.” ( Lars T Lih) this, purported re-direction as outlined in the ground, to come so suddenly into power... He April Theses, itself a seminal document and Lih asserts most certainly that there was some- pauses for the right word. “Es schwindelt,” he precursor to the Bolshevik/Soviets taking power how just a difference in interpreting vlast and concludes, changing suddenly to German, and in October 1917? kontrol - therefore Bolshevism was spun simply circling his hand around his head. We look at on a misinterpretation! As the events of social each other and laugh a little. All this takes only a The concluding five points Lih made in this latest and political processes unfolded over the spring minute or two; then a simple “passing to next ’revelation’, excludes the very mention of the to summer - summer to autumn, the unviability business.” proletariat as ‘being’ at the very heart of the of the Kerensky, Miliukov and Guchkov provi- ‘old and new’ Bolshevism. Is this accidental? I The government must be formed. We number sional government, straddled between, on the would suggest that Lih has taken even Kautsky’s one hand, the war weary, hungry, displaced among us a few members of the Central Com- view of 1917 Russia even further back, to feudal workers and landless displaced peasants forced mittee. A quick session opens over in a corner of times with his emphasis on the peasantry. How together in military combinations (in war) and the room. preposterous. thereby into disparate armed soviets and those “What shall we call them?” asks Lenin, thinking The author is billed as a Canadian historian/ urban soviets of workers, who were initially the aloud. “Any thing but ministers that’s such a academic, presumably he does not consider more politicised because of their tradition of vile, hackneyed word.” himself a Marxist, or if he does so he assuages ‘founding‘ the one ‘big’ soviet in 1905 St Peters- “We might call them commissaries,” I suggest, any self definition thus so to, again presumably, burg. “but there are too many commissaries just now. give to his work an air of ‘academic neutrality’ Reflecting the political orientation of these as distinct from any accusation of ‘dogmatism‘. Perhaps ’supreme commissaries’? No, ’supreme’ aforementioned soviets were the parties to does not sound well, either. What about There have been many earlier minds similarly which they either sympathised with or were ‘tuned in’ on the ideological driving-force as to ’people’s commissaries’?” members of : The Socialist Revolutionaries (left Lenin’s directives and urgings during those and constitutional), Menshevik (constitutional “’People’s commissaries? Well, that might do, I months of 1917 - and they all testify to the class and internationalist) and Bolshevik (Leninist and think,” Lenin agrees. “And the government as a positions of these ‘viewers’ regarding the social compromisers) - on the other hand the prevari- whole?” and political overturn of October. cations of the provisional government whose “A Soviet, of course..., the Soviet of People’s The simple fact is this, that without the totally attitude and control of the war had brought Commissaries, eh?” new economic, social and political conditions through to prominence the reactionary Kadet revealed in the Imperialist war beginning in Party- Junkers and Cossacks of the Whites’ reac- “The Soviet of People’s Commissaries?” Lenin 1914, old-Europe, like old-Bolshevism, could not tion with General Kornilov’s plans to overturn picks it up. “That’s splendid; smells terribly of have been the stage for October’s revolution. the whole preceding - bourgeois democratic revolution!” strikes/constituent assembly - the February Professor Lih, in his latest article, brings promi- Lenin was not much inclined toward the æsthet- earlier passage. nently before us his often repeated views of ics of revolution, or toward relishing its Kamenev, as the archetypical old-Bolshevik Unless the reader has an empathy and an un- “romantic quality.” But all the more deeply did leader, as distinct from Lenin, where he says: derstanding of the very process then forming he feel the revolution as a whole, and all the

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 28 more unmistakably did he define its “smell.” force to both underlie the possible capitalistic social growth and conflict, both with and with- “And what,” Vladimir Ilyich once asked me out the bourgeois representatives in the form quite unexpectedly, during those first days of an organic liberal democratic challenge to “what if the White Guards kill you and me? Will the feudal Romanov dynasty around which the Svyerdlov and Bukharin be able to manage?” overwhelming majority population of middle “Perhaps they won’t kill us,” I rejoined, laugh- and lower peasantry farmed the nature of the ing. productive land. We know that both Lenin and Plekhanov were two of the principle figures “The devil knows what they might do,” said of the émigré editorial board of the Iskra (The Lenin, laughing in turn. Spark) group in 1902/03 London, and it was at In 1924, in my recollections of Lenin (after his this time that the young Trotsky joined the death), I described this incident for the first sitting six on that board alongside Lenin, Mar- time. I learned afterward that the members of tov and Potresov in the ’new generation’ as what was then a “trio” Stalin, Zinoviev and against the older émigrés of Plekhanov, Zasu- Kamenev felt terribly offended by it, although litch and Axelrod. they did not dare contradict it. But the fact But Lenin’s appreciation of Plekhanov’s earlier remains that Lenin only mentioned Svyerdlov role as propagandiser and populariser of Marx- and Bukharin. He did not think of any others.” ism did not alter, his émigré-London acquired Trotsky - ‘My Life’ (1930) total conviction, that a functional fighting revo- Lars T Lih: “Did Lih ever read Trotsky’s lutionary party required more than that which But let us here go back a while and reflect on ’History of the Russian Revolution’? Did he the ’old man’ Plekhanov had in him to give. The the views of the historical linearity of Russian dismiss altogether the multifarious archive Marxism as a precursor to Bolshevism, and soon to be revealed split between the majority basis of that enormous work?” what that tradition said: “…To appreciate Bolsheviki and minority Mensheviki was at the Lenin’s historic contribution there is no need ‘foundry’ where sparks flew apart and where Bolshevism can be defined as strategy, as an whatever to try to show that from his early Lenin, ironically, initially with the backing of outlook. Lenin himself, in 1910 or 1911 said that years he was obliged to break the virgin soil Plekhanov, split with Martov on the forged Bolshevism became a tendency in 1905 - a with a plough of his own. commitment of a party members’ responsibili- ties. strong hint that we should be looking for the strategy pursued in this era…” Lenin defined “There were almost no comprehensive (Marxist) works available (to Lenin when he In the light (or darkness) of Lih’s previous refer- Bolshevism as a revolutionary tendency - as began his studies),” writes Elisarova (a Stalinist ence to Lenin’s appreciation of Kautsky, it can opposed to the ’undefined popular front Social historian), parroting Kamenev and others. “It be said at this point as a supplementary, that it Democracy’ tendency of Menshevism - as the was necessary for him to study the original was universally accepted amongst both wings essential different tendency, to build a resolute, sources (government local statistics on peas- of Russian Social Democracy throughout this determined party capable of single-mindedly ant and worker life) and draw from them his time, that Kautsky was right as against Bern- leading the proletariat to power - and not any- own deductions.” stein in the German Social Democracy struggle thing more, neither in outline nor otherwise Mr for ideological correctness. But their growth Lih. Lih says; “…First, old Bolshevism was a Nothing could be more offensive to Lenin’s own and polemics were in their own ‘national and vision and strategy of democratic revolution, rigorous scientific scrupulousness than this legal plane’ and their development was in a and carrying through the democratic revolution claim that he took no account of his predeces- totally different environment and tradition nd to the end …” - old Menshevism had exactly the sors and teachers. Nor is it true that in the early within the 2 International. These two schools same goal (in theory - at least) during the pe- Nineties (1890s) Russian Marxism possessed no became three after 1914 with the principled riod under consideration Mr Lih. comprehensive works. and defined communist emergence of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. “ That phrase - ‘carrying the democratic revolu- The publications of the Emancipation of Labour tion to the end’ - is probably more helpful than Group already constituted at the time an I cannot but believe that amongst the ’leading the ‘democratic dictatorship of proletariat and abridged encyclopaedia of the new tendency. lights’ of the CPGB/Weekly Worker, there have- peasantry’. It was commonly used at the time, After six years of brilliant and heroic struggle n’t been raised eyebrows to these latest points but its use has been obscured by Soviet transla- against the prejudices of the Russian intelligent- made by Lih. Do you think this should pass tors into English, who not only paraphrased it, sia, (Georgy) Plekhanov proclaimed in 1889 at without comment by yourselves? My concern, but used different paraphrases each time.” the Socialist World Congress in Paris, “The revo- however, is toward the younger, revolutionary Carrying the ‘democratic revolution to the end’ lutionary movement in Russia can triumph seeking reader, being led on a false trail here by was used within the context of all opposition- only as the revolutionary working-class move- Lih, into the origins of reformism, revisionism ists to Czarism, including the bourgeois groups ment. There is and there can be no other way and Stalinism, within which are the ‘all the in the state Duma, where these social/political out for us.” These words summed up the most formative lessons’ about the internationalism tendencies would fight it out or capitulate en- important general conclusion from the entire of Communism. Of course there can be much tirely until resurrected after burrowing into the preceding epoch and it was on, the basis of this more done on explaining the position of Bol- ‘rightist’ bureaucracy after 1924. generalization of an “émigré” that Vladimir (V. shevism regarding the proletariat and peas- I. Lenin) pursued his education …” - Trotsky on antry over the whole period encompassed The role of the proletariat was certainly clear to ‘How Lenin Studied Marx’ (1936) above, but unless the fundamentals are cor- all Russian Social Democracy (Bolshevik and rected, the student will wander in darkness led Menshevik) preceding 1917, but the role of the The Russian Marxist movement of Marxist/ astray by the likes of Lih. peasantry was considered an economic and Plekhanov origins, was particularly distin- political variable, dependent to the, more or guished from the ’Peoples Will’ or anarchistic Virtually every line of his latest piece is an less considered view, on the success of the peasant oriented Narodniki, and by their turn, eclectic jumble of part programme - part per- bourgeois resolve to fight for the hegemony of to the revolutionary nature of that class of spective, it’s like an elusive multi-headed mon- the varying layers of those lower and middle proletarians who by their nature would be the ster slipping out of one’s grasp through lack of petty bourgeois sectors in relation to the sup- only consistent ‘class’ i.e., progressive social substance or placement. Where Lih says: “Old

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 29

pression of the landlords power and to their What a most stupid and presumptive assertion I believe he is making an apologetic case for connectivity with town life and central govern- to make. As if Lenin’s party were suggesting Kautsky’s theoretical betrayal on the eve of the ment. There were a number of open questions solely propagandising to steal in (with the work- dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry that couldn’t be outlined with finality in their ers leading - or in tow) and grab as much politi- through Soviets, and with that ’impossibilty’ in perspectives right through to mid-1917. cally accrued credited loot as possible during mind, he thereby justifies the eventual degener- chaos and ferment, only later to be cashed in acy of Russia under the Stalinist ’Thermidor’ “ … The (presumably here Lih means Bolshevik) and resuscitated on an eventual evolutionary after the event. This finds resonance only with idea was that the tsar was on his last legs and a result very much of a German-type model - built those that are too lazy politically to make a real democratic revolution was bound to occur. But up SPD-style. Marxist and thereby scientific analysis of the of what kind, what would be the results, and successes and setbacks of the Russian revolu- how far could it proceed? The Bolshevik strategy Professor Lih demonstrates he has very little tion and its global significance then and now. In was for the working class to take as much as it understanding of either the nature of the es- short Lih is a fraud and the Weekly Worker is could during this period of ferment while it had sence of capitalism in political and economic guilty of disseminating a fraudsters meander- the chance to do so. The constituent assembly fundamentals, less further still its Imperialist ings without offering any critique of their own would come in two, four or five years and the juncture that underlay the first world war and toward this junk at all. aim in the meantime was a widespread social the subsequent political consequences. It was transformation. The slogans were confiscation precisely this that Marxists of the communist of the estates, agrarian reform, a democratic type like Lenin and Trotsky were seeking to The Weekly Worker article can be found here: republic and an eight-hour day - reforms em- seriously tackle at the head of the international bracing the peasants, workers and all citi- working class and peasant masses in a culturally http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php? zens…”. diverse and backwardly vast expanse of land. article_id=1004181

Continued from page 9 working class left but “a major failing is that the propaganda programme itself, while mentioning not to mention the attitude to immigrant work- several components of a socialist ers it implies. system, fails to explicitly state that it On the trade unions we get: is the programme of an organisation which seeks to establish a revolu- “Those who are supposed to defend us failed us. tionary socialist state in Ireland.” The Irish Congress of Trade Unions was in part- And is, “notable by its absence is any nership with this Government every year Fianna mention of the national aspect to Fail was in power. David Begg, the leader of the revolutionary socialist struggle in ICTU, sat on the Board of the Central Bank when this country. It is the duty of Irish it failed to regulate the banks and failed to do socialists to combat the undemo- anything to prevent the disaster.” cratic imposition of cutbacks in the Correct as far as it goes but again it is a capitula- North, challenge the overt sectarian- tion to the left bureaucracy, why no mention of ism which has been entrenched in the fight of the rank-and-file against the trade the very structures of the Northern union bureaucracy? SD produced an excellent state and work towards the ending The dark rural constituencies are where Fine Gael are domi- statement in support of Jerry Hicks and building of partition.” nant and the more urbanised areas are the home of Labour. Sinn Fein’s vote was strongest around the border, some parts rank and file bodies to fight the bureaucracy The ‘Democratic Socialist’ bit sug- and gave the Hicks campaign for Unite Gen Sec of rural Ireland and west Dublin. Labour is weaker there be- gests a two stage revolution without cause the TU bureaucracy and the Irish establishment want to powerful political and material support whereas that ‘nasty’ dictatorship of the prole- the ULA leaders either opposed or gave it half- keep the national question and the class struggle separate tariat bit implied in the ‘Workers hearted support like the SWP. because its revolutionary potential. Fianna Fail lost its big anti Republic’ slogan but then ‘a revolu- -Imperialist working class following but Sinn Fein did not get They finish with, “Only ONE group stand op- tionary socialist state’ suggest just that. Only when the labour movement leads the struggle for a posed to ALL cuts, to paying the debts of the the opposite. A more detailed analy- socialist united Ireland will revolution become possible. BANKERS and opposing the bullying of the EU sis of the republican socialist pro- and IMF. Vote for and sign up to the United Left grammes of both the IRSP and éirígí is necessary Alliance!” in undisguised capitulation. and we will attempt this for the next issue. The this is clearly a principled socialist stance on the ULA. But perhaps the statement is not official SD ULA document is reformist says the IRSP, policy? The credit at the end says. “This leaflet “The IRSP’s position on electoralism is clear. We Alan Davis of the International Bol- has been produced by supporters of the United do not believe there is a parliamentary road to shevik Tendency (IBT) Left Alliance who are members and supporters socialism and thus any electoral intervention of Socialist Democracy”. must not be characterised by a refusal to put Some may question why we take the time to analyse the contribution of a single individual The Irish Republican Socialist Party right-wing parties in power or the demand for what can realistically be judged as a more pro- with no followers in Ireland but that misses the In contrast the attack from the IRSP is clearly gressive policy platform than a conservative point. In the first place we have few members from the left. They gave individual members administration, but by the clear pursuit of revo- ourselves and the vital question is always the permission to support the ULA by campaigning lutionary aims...Should socialists sign up to struggle for clarification of revolutionary ideas. for it in the election but both it and éirígí were something that in practice would be reformist This document does address this in a serious excluded from the group from the beginning and firmly in the realms of social democracy? way. because they were ‘left republicans’ and not The answer should be an unequivocal ‘no’. This In line with the IBT itself it has no real apprecia- socialists. It is clear from this document that the returns us to the issue of how this alliance is tion of the relationship between the national IRSP would have refused any such invitation. being built: not by the broader layers of working question and the socialist revolution in Ireland. They have fundamental criticisms of the ULA masses, but by two main sects out to enlarge It sees the unification of the country, not as programme. They are for a 32 County Democ- their vote.” reversing the ‘carnival of reaction’ that Connolly ratic Socialist Republic and want unity on the Whilst having many differences with the IRSP correctly predicted partition would reinforce in

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 30

the political psyche of both Loyalist and Nation- must be overcome in reunification of the coun- It should simply declare for rank and file bodies alist workers (not that we should equate the try. Of course we want a socialist united Ireland like the Minority Movement of the early British reactionary with the progressive) and therefore but we cannot place this as a pre-condition of Communist Party or the US SWP under Trotsky’s a barrier to the socialist revolution. struggle because that is to pander to Loyalist guidance when they produced the Northwest All revolutionary situations in Ireland were all- backwardness. We must defeat that, not ap- Organiser in the great Teamster struggles in Ireland events; the pre and post WWI struggles, peased it. The document says. Minneapolis-St Pauls in the early 1930s. How- the 1969 Civil Rights uprising, the anti- “The new party should call for the immediate ever is getting there on this question, we must internment mobilisation of 1971-72 and the and unconditional withdrawal of British troops admit. 1981 Hunger strikes. In all these cases the hold from Northern Ireland. We should demand the Lastly it is refreshing to see a document posing of reactionary Loyalism over ‘their’ working release of Republican prisoners and the repeal the real tasks which will face the working class class weakened markedly and they had to mobi- of the Prevention of Terrorism Act… One of the in any revolutionary situation, lise fascistic elements to discipline these and to central slogans of the new party should be – For “It is necessary to break up the existing state attack nationalist workers to defeat these revo- an Irish Workers’ Republic within a Socialist apparatus and replace it with a new state lutionary upsurges in collaboration with the Federation of Europe!” power, based on the fundamentally different northern and southern states. This has to be the This is inadequate because it does not explain forms of workers’ democracy, which is commit- case in the next revolutionary situation. too how unity can be forged and suggests that a ted to serving and protecting the interests of The IBT formulate the matter thus: “We would syndicalist, workerist unity of fighting the capi- working people and the oppressed. The new have no objection to such a development talists is good enough. This is approaching the party should openly advocate this and reject any (capitalist unification of Ireland) if it could be backwardness of the SP itself where they can reformist fantasies about “community control” achieved without intercommunal warfare and have two papers in Ireland because Loyalist of the existing capitalist state apparatus.” massive bloodletting. But at this point, it is uto- workers should not be forced to read about So in conclusion as the it is not a critique of the pian to imagine that it might.” southern workers’ struggles; they supporter the ULA but addressing the question of how a new This is the equivalent of demanding that no Ulster Loyalist Workers Council strike in 1974. workers party should function, along the blood be shed in the revolution. Loyalist leaders After that the stuff on the trade unions is some- ‘algebraic’ lines that Trotsky advocated for will mobilise fascist gangs against any threat- what confused. Although it is better than old building a Labor party in the USA, putting de- ened revolutionary unification (one of the aims Spart notions of building pure ‘revolutionary mands on TU bureaucrats and mobilising the of the Orange Order is “to counter revolution”), caucuses’ composed of party members alone in ranks to fight them in struggle it tackles its task these will have to be defeated in order to make the trade unions it is syndicalist/abstentionist, well. But with the exclusion of the left republi- revolution. It is totally incorrect to present Loy- in between Cannon/Trotsky and Spart leader can socialist groups like the IRSP and éirígí, and alism as the legitimate representatives of prot- Robertson via the pro-Imperialist workerist the failure of this latter document to under- estant workers, by doing so you are dismissing Max Shachtman (the dead guru revered by the stand the essential reformist drive from both the mobilising and liberating effect of the revo- AWL and Sean Matgamna). The document says; the SP and SWP which led to those exclusion lution. Therefore not to champion the right of “It is necessary for trade union activists to organ- means there is much work to be done Ireland to self-determination is to rob that com- ise groupings within the unions based on class Endnotes munist slogan of its entire content. This slogan struggle politics in opposition to the bureaucrats is of its nature democratic, it is directed at the – not only to overcome their resistance to mili- [1] The United Left Alliance (ULA) is an electoral alliance of left-wing political parties and inde- consciousness of nationalist workers whose tant industrial action against the current attacks, pendent politicians in the Republic of Ireland, progressive instincts tell them that British Impe- but also to lay the basis for a more generalised formed to contest the 2011 general election. The rialism is the main enemy in Ireland. offensive against the irrationality of capitalism. grouping consists of three existing political par- In no way should we attempt to equate this These groupings should reject the fake unity of ties, the Socialist Party, the People Before Profit with the essentially supremacist, pro-Imperialist “broad left” formations and instead be caucuses Alliance (SWP dominated), and the Workers and arrogance of the Loyalist labour aristocracy, of party members, and other militants who sup- Unemployed Action Group, as well as former complete with the sashes and bowler hats of port our work in the unions, formed on accep- members of the Labour Party (Wikipedia). this reactionary elitist privileged workers of old tance of the key elements of our programme as [2] The ULA programme and three critiques can before the Labour parties were founded. Which the basis for action. These socialist caucuses be viewed here: http://www.scribd.com/ is why no mass reformist Labour party can ever would then work with others throughout the doc/52697810/ULA-Programme-and-Three- flourish in the north; the national question union movement in united front campaigns on Critiques fatally divides the working class and that barrier specific cases and issues.”

Continued from page 32 science, an not as complete as the exploitation at the Imperial world's nations? Why the fostering of underdevel- exposure of its centres, is ultimately absurd––another reason opment, why the attempt to deal with this current true nature (as what the bourgeoisie has to say why, at the end of the day, it is utterly false, illogi- crisis through military intervention? Or why, in a about its own practice); and so of its epistemologi- cal and uncritical. For if it was really true that the word, Imperialism? But a consciousness that re- cal status, an exposure of its limitations, and an peasant is not exploited as much as the labourer in jects any serious theorization of Imperialism and invitation to realize that this alleged science, the first-world factory, then one would imagine its connection to capitalism, that refuses to under- claimed to be independent of historical material- that the first-world factory labourers would rather stand how those of us at the Imperial centers ism, cannot possess such independence. Political be peasants living in South Asia, which is clearly often benefit from a culture/context produced by economy is the outward form assumed by histori- not the case. Of course, the counter-argument Imperialism, can understand Imperialism as noth- cal materialism (the class struggle) under capital- would be that I'm misunderstanding the actual ing more than a militaristic aberration performed ism. On the logical plane historical materialism is meaning of surplus-value and exploitation but that for dubious reasons. Hence, as I have already prior to economics, but class struggle under capi- is my entire point: we cannot speak of exploitation complained, the propensity amongst certain sec- talism does not take place in a vacuum: it operates and oppression simply as numbers but as facts tors of the left to be able to adopt a coherent and on an economic basis, and shapes laws that ap- that exist in the real world––in history and society. critical anti-Imperialism in cases like Libya. pear economic in character." (Amin, The Law of And really, if it was the case that more surplus can Endnote Worldwide Value, 10) be extracted from the factory worker, then why [1] Samir Amin. The Law of Worldwide Value. New This false consciousness, when it makes economis- the rush on the part of some nations to control York: Monthly Review Press, 2010. tic claims that the exploitation at the peripheries is and carve up the resources of the majority of this Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 31

Imperialism and False Consciousness By Joshua Moufawad-Paul, M-L-M Mayhem! Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Thoughts, Philosophy, Humour (http://moufawad-paul.blogspot.com/), April 6 2011.

Socialist Fight is pleased to reprint this article What I find rather telling, and how the Frankfurt with the permission of Comrade Moufawad-Paul. extremely disappointing, is the School's concept of "the It is from a Maoist perspective but the points prevalence of a supposedly culture industry" or "one- about Euro-centric Marxism and Imperialist ide- "Marxist" viewpoint that goes dimensionality" makes ology in the wake of the political collapse of the out of its way to dismiss any the most sense if under- majority of the left groups over the Benghazi theory that interrogates the stood within a third-world rebels and bombing of Libya hit home. That re- global contradiction between Marxist theorization of quires an explanation of more dept than simply a the Imperialist centres and Imperialism. And the bad person theory of history. We present this peripheries of global capitalism. argument of the culture article as a contribution to that discussion. What is most problematic about industry does not claim this viewpoint, however, is not that people living in the he failure to express a truly anti- the tangential arguments and countries where this Imperialist politics amongst progressives– diversionary "proofs" it is able culture industry thrives –amongst even those who profess "anti- to mobilize (all of which shift are no longer exploited, Imperialism"––is often due to a failure to the argument down a rabbit just that it is extremely Tunderstand and theorize "Imperialism." The re- trail of spurious appearance easy for us to accept the fusal amongst certain sectors of the mainstream that often has nothing to do terms of this exploitation left to recognize the intervention in Libya, for with the original terms of the ––especially easy if the example, as an instance of Imperialism follows argument), but the fact that it most vicious contradic- from the inability to conceptualize Imperialism. implicitly proves one of the tions of capital can be “This widespread failure to truly appreci- Thus Gilbert Achcar could veil his capitulation to main points made by anti- muted with social democ- ate the concrete reality of Imperialism” is Imperialist logic with anti-Imperialist trappings. Imperialist theories: the con- racy, liberal culture, and a predominantly an implicitly Eurocentric Jean-Luc Nancy, recently critiqued by Alain Badiou, sciousness often produced in lifestyle politics that is Marxism that downplays the connection makes the same mistake. And both Achcar and the centres of Imperialism, only possible by generally between capitalism and Imperialism/ Nancy are symptoms of this widespread failure to sometimes called a "labour exporting the most terror- colonialism. "Political Marxism", best truly appreciate the concrete reality of Imperial- aristocracy" consciousness, is istic contradictions else- represented by Robert Brenner and Ellen ism and then, upon this concrete understanding, demonstrated by the uncritical where. Meiksins Wood, is one of these strains.” - to construct an anti-Imperialist politics. refusal to actually appreciate What makes this false I think we can trace elements of theories that call the privilege behind this con- consciousness especially offensive, however, is the this theoretical failure to certain overlapping sciousness into question. None of this is to say fact that it leads to some very bizarre assertions strains/tendencies of academic Marxism, predomi- that everyone who lives at the centres of Imperial- about world capitalism and Imperialism. For in- nantly an implicitly Eurocentric Marxism that ism is privileged and not exploited, but that a stance, I have heard some people who reject every downplays the connection between capitalism and certain culture and general consciousness is pro- attempt to theorize the labour aristocracy actually Imperialism/colonialism. "Political Marxism", best duced, due to the situation of global capitalism claim that the factory worker in North America is represented by Robert Brenner and Ellen Meiksins (Imperialism), in those nations that benefit from more "exploited" than a peasant in any given Wood, is one of these strains. The practice of and control Imperialism. South Asian country. They try to prove this claim "Marxology", where scholars treat the works of Marxist theorists sometimes like to speak of "false by looking at positivist approaches to statistics, Marx and Engels as sacred texts and ignore the consciousness", of a way of seeing the world pro- suddenly becoming like bourgeois economists, and method that transcends the doctrine, is another duced by the ruling ideas of the ruling classes, that produce very narrow and critically limited inter- problem. Then there are the multiple positivist often affects even those who are exploited by pretations of surplus extraction. But this is not Marxisms, the political economies devoid of his- capital. This false consciousness, this "common historical materialism, nor is it especially scientific, torical materialism that rely on the statistical and sense" way of making sense of reality, is what since it is based only on numerical appearances reified data of vulgar economics, that contribute limits the radical imaginary. Thus the imagination rather than concrete analyses. The medical scien- to the breakdown of a holistic theoretical analysis. of Marxists who cannot understand how their tist does not create a good theory of medical Instead of examining why these academic strains/ societies might benefit from Imperialism––how science simply by the numerical representations tendencies fail to properly comprehend Imperial- they themselves might benefit from a liberal cul- of, for example, CAT scans but by always contextu- ism, which is the business of entire books (many ture that is only possible because of the enforced alizing this within an investigation of the body already written), I want to investigate something lack of this culture elsewhere––also refuse to itself. Nor did Marx rely only on economistic for- more fundamental. These tendencies are not, in theoretically understand the very structure of mulae when he wrote Capital: this always my opinion, the ultimate cause behind this break- Imperialism. emerged from his dialectical/historical materialism down of a truly critical anti-Imperialism. Rather, I If we add this false consciousness to the false and he understood, as did Engels when he de- think these analyses emerge from a general con- consciousness that is encouraged by the strictures fended Capital in Anti-Dühring, that the numerical sciousness that is produced by Imperial and colo- of academic intellectualism, then the refusal to formulae were not the ultimate proof––hence the nial privilege. In his most recent book, for exam- truly engage with the Marxist theories and move- reason to talk about history and society and to ple, Samir Amin speaks of how "the essential ments that emerge from the global peripheries actually examine the world rather than the ap- contribution furnished by Marxists of the Third makes sense. None of this is to say that intellectu- pearance of the world. Again, as Amin qualifies in World… is, as a rule, poorly understood and badly als cannot be exploited, that some of us do not his new book and thus closes the door on any received in the West." (Amin, The Law of World- also sell our labour-power in increasingly neo- positivistic attempts to ignore and obfuscate what wide Value, 92) [1] I would argue that this is a liberalized universities (I work in a casualised con- he is trying to argue: general rule because the consciousness produced tract context, for example, so I'm well aware of "The subtitle of Capital––'A Critique of Political by Imperial and colonial privilege, just like the this issue), but that we exist within a certain cul- Economy'––does not mean a critique of consciousness produced by bourgeois or petty ture that produces a certain consciousness. More- 'bad' (Ricardian) political economy, with a view to bourgeois privilege, often leads to an inability to over, I would argue that this culture flourishes replacing it with a 'good' (Marxian) one. It is rather accept critiques that threaten this very privilege. because of Imperialism: I have a good friend and a critique of so- comrade whose research, for example, examines called economic Continued on page 31 Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 32 Libya: Pakistan left parties' statement on NATO attacks

Socialist Fight welcomes this timely statement from these ten and France to portray the bom- rained down death and destruction upon mil- Pakistani groups in clear and unequivocal opposition to the bardment of Libya as a humani- lions from its warplanes and tanks. History barbarism of the world Imperialism’s attack on Libya. Coming tarian act are totally fraudulent. shows that every such intervention has been for Saudi Arabia sent its troops to securing strategic resources, subjugating Third from a country which is suffering appalling illegal drone attacks crush the protesters of Bahrain, World countries and crushing peoples' move- killing vast numbers of civilians arising from the assault on yet here the US and NATO silently ments, so that the rich may continue to remain Afghanistan by Western Imperialism it is enormously hearten- watched, or rather, covertly as- rich and the poor continue to remain poor. ing to those of us in the belly of the Imperialist beast to get sisted their ally. So why the attack It is our duty as moral and peace-loving people such a courageous message. on Libya? The answer is oil. to wish our brothers in Libya a decisive victory And it is an open repudiation of the cowardly pro-Imperialist America and NATO are today against the United States and NATO and oppres- visiting the same destruction on sive political and economic structures. ‘revolutionaries’ in the West who have either openly sup- Libya that they visited upon Iraq. ported the Imperialist assault or who have supported and Down with Western Imperialism and its collabo- Whereas in Iraq they launched a rators! many who continue to support their agents, the Benghazi re- full invasion, in Libya they are bels, even dubbing these Contra elements ‘revolutionaries’. pursuing other methods -- by No to NATO attack on Libya We note the signature of the Revolutionary Socialist Move- assisting collaborators within Victory to all workers fighting for the democrati- ment, Pakistani section of the League for the Fifth Interna- Libya itself. Let us be clear this is sation of the political, economic and social tional, in such obvious repudiation of Workers Power’s pro- about regime change and oil and spheres! as with Iraq the oil will be priva- Imperialist stance. Victory to the people of Libya! tised or linked to development projects for Western co-operation. It is another 1. Workers Party Pakistan April 8, 2011 -- ESSF -- While it is accepted that instance of capitalism as Imperialism. The victim 2. Labour Party Pakistan Gaddafi and his model of ruling is autocratic and again will be the poor of Libya and the world, repressive and cannot be supported by any the environment that this capitalism is destroy- 3. Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party progressive grouping, a few things also need to ing and all those movements that aim at the 4. Revolutionary Socialist Movement be stated about NATO and its discourse of hu- democratisation of the political, economic and 5. Awami Party manitarian intervention and let us state them social spheres -- that is all those movements clearly. that aim at socialist solutions. 6. Awami jamhoori Forum After drowning Iraq and Afghanistan in blood, This is what Western Imperialism has always 7. National Students Federation Western Imperialism has now sunk its fangs into done in the name of humanitarianism and de- 8. Progressive Youth Front Libya. Like a wild beast that smells the scent of mocracy. In the name of democracy, it has its prey from a distance, it has seized upon the propped up the most ruthless dictators in Latin 9. Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee rebellion in Libya as if it were the opportunity of America, the Middle East and all over the world. 10. National Trade Union Federation a lifetime. Attempts by the United States, Britain In the name of humanitarianism, it has savagely

Continued from page 33 narrative, to fear the light of day. The Russian people, [8]http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ telling the and the peoples of Europe and the whole mar/16/hear-bradley-manning-because-chains truth is a revolutionary act. And, if telling the world, should learn the documentary truth [9]http://english.irib.ir/voj/analyses/in-depth- truth is a revolutionary act, then it is the duty about the plans forged in secret by the financi- analysis/item/79251-quantico-blocks-official- of Socialists to defend those who do tell the ers and industrialists together with their par- visits-by-un-amnesty-and-rep-kucinich-to- truth or endeavour to bring crimes and abuses liamentary and diplomatic agents. The peoples manning to light. of Europe have paid for the right to this truth [10]https://secure.avaaz.org/en/ with countless sacrifices and universal eco- Secret diplomacy was anathema to the Bolshe- bradley_manning/ nomic desolation. viks, and one of the first acts on taking power [11]http://Littlealexinwonderland.wordpress. was to publish all secret treaties. Trotsky The abolition of secret diplomacy is the pri- com/2010/04/12/upcoming-wikileaks-video- wrote[17]: mary condition for an honest, popular, truly may-2009-massacre-by-u-s-killing-up-to-147- democratic foreign policy. afghan-civilians/ Publishing the secret diplomatic documents [12]http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/ from the foreign policy archives of Tsarism and Endnotes of the bourgeois coalition Governments of the world/16wiki.html?_r=2 first seven months of the revolution, we are [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ [13]http://www.markify.com/trademarks/ carrying out the undertaking which we made Bradley_Manning ctm/julian+assange/009734096 when our party was in opposition. Secret diplo- [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Lamo [14]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ macy is a necessary tool for a propertied mi- [3]http://www.wired.com/ Ellingham_Hall,_Norfolk nority which is compelled to deceive the major- threatlevel/2010/05/lamo/ [15]http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ ity in order to subject it to its interests. Imperi- [4]http://www.youtube.com/watch? apr/07/israeli-wikileaks-cables-julian-assange alism, with its dark plans of conquest and its v=Cx3_ynHjL-M [16]http://www.alterpolitics.com/politics/ robber alliances and deals, developed the sys- [5]http://www.wired.com/ julian-assange-western-newspapers-hesitant- tem of secret diplomacy to the highest level. threatlevel/2010/06/wikileaks-chat/ to-publish-israel-related-leaks/ The struggle against the Imperialism which is [17]http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/ exhausting and destroying the peoples of [6]http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/ government/foreign-relations/1917/ Europe is at the same time a struggle against glenn_greenwald/2010/06/18/wikileaks November/22.htm capitalist diplomacy, which has cause enough [7]http://wikileaks.info/

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 33 Defend Bradley Manning By Brighid Ó Duinn

“During times of universal deceit, telling the fully worldwide discussion, truth becomes a revolutionary act.” debates, and reforms - if not, than [sic] we're doomed - as a George Orwell species - i will officially give up If the opening decade of the 21st century has on the society we have if noth- taught us anything, it has taught us that there ing happens - the reaction to is no limit to the depravity of Imperialist fi- the video gave me immense nance capital, nor any limit to the way in hope; CNN's iReport was over- which many of those operating on the front- whelmed; Twitter exploded - lines of opening new foreign markets for capi- people who saw, knew there was something cial Rapporteur on Torture have all been re- tal, referred to (interchangeably) as 'freedom' wrong... - i want people to see the truth… fused private visits to Manning[9]. A petition and 'democracy', in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan regardless of who they are… because without to end the torture of Bradley Manning can be and Libya, will dehumanise everyone and eve- information, you cannot make informed deci- signed here[10]. rything that it perceives to be a threat to its sions as a public. Julian Assange, the now public face of the ability to operate unchecked. While the US According to one investigative journalist[6]: “A previously anonymous Wikileaks is busy doing and its 'junior partner' the UK delight in regu- definitive understanding of what really hap- deals with the main stream media to drip-feed lar criticism of the abuses and violations by pened is virtually impossible to acquire, largely the leaked diplomatic cables and to date, everyone and everything other than them- because almost everything that is known Wikileaks has not released the further footage selves, their own domestic records are atro- comes from a single, extremely untrustworthy of atrocities which it is said to have[11]. cious in regard to the taking of political prison- source: Lamo himself.” WikiLeaks did not identify Manning as the ers, while also lacking the honesty to say that's source of this material, and according to NBC what they are. Generally, in the 'free' and in January 2011, the U.S. government could 'democratic' societies of 'The West', there are find no evidence of direct contact between no political prisoners, only 'terrorists', Manning and Assange[12]. Assange, while 'extremists' and 'traitors' to the fictional no- busy like all comic-book superheroes trade- tions of nations and the fictional capital with marking his name[13], happens to be holed-up which they seek to consume every available in the country estate of former British Army resource for fictional capital profit. officer Vaughan Smith[14] – a somewhat curi- What is clear is that the US Government 23 year-old Private Bradley Manning [1] is a ous liaison however you look at it – fighting deemed Wikileaks[7] a 'threat to National US soldier accused of being the source behind extradition to Sweden on charges of sexual Security' and had made plans to destroy it by the leak of US diplomatic cables and US army assault. Assange has recently released Israeli deterring anyone considering 'whistleblowing': footage of their atrocities to the Wikileaks diplomatic cables exclusively to the Israeli website. He was an unlikely soldier, sensitive, Setting an example is precisely what the US is press, where it would be fair to presume the a humanist, and had recently come out as gay intent on doing – as with the torture in Guan- selective publication of which will be the name man, but the military was the only option in tanamo and the abuse in Abu Ghraib – Man- of the game[15]. As noted in another report exchange for having his education funded, a ning is being subjected to inhumane treatment [16] “By giving the main stream media exclu- path common to so many financial conscripts that amounts to torture whilst awaiting court sive rights to the leak information — essen- to the US Army. Manning had been assigned in martial. In May 2011, 22 further charges were tially the power to serve as middlemen be- October 2009 to a support battalion at For- levelled against him, including 'aiding the en- tween the documents and the discerning pub- ward Operating Base Hammer, near Baghdad. emy' for which he faces the prospect of the lic — they are effectively allowing the corpo- He was arrested in May 2010, shopped to the death penalty. The inhumane and brutal treat- rate-owned media establishment to serve as FBI by an infamous US computer hacker, ment of Manning includes: ideological gatekeepers”. In short, Wikileaks Adrian Lamo [2], who claimed that Manning deal-brokering methods of 'disclosure' do little • Solitary confinement in a 12ft x 6ft window- had revealed to him during online chats that more than to maintain the status quo regard- less cell he'd been the source of the leaks. At around ing the suppression of information by corpo- the same time Lamo was apparently under • Stripped naked and ritually humiliated rate gatekeepers. section for mental health problems[3] after “Publish and be damned” it certainly isn't, and contacting police for help and just two weeks • Sleep deprivation and forced medication we have yet to see the bulk of the cables later, Manning was arrested. • Refusal of prison visits Wikileaks claims to have. If Wikileaks contin- ues to fail to challenge the corporate- Manning gave his reasons for the leaking of • An hour of shackled exercise, alone the 'Collateral Murder' video[4] in what is state hierarchy then what purpose does claimed to be one of these online chats with • Removal of prescription glasses that leave Wikileaks as an organisation serve? Irrespec- Lamo[5], although there is no firm evidence him in near blindness tive of how Wikileaks acts from here-on in, that the person communicating with Lamo whistleblowers such as Bradley Manning, who His friend and twice-monthly visitor, David was Manning as online names were used. endeavour to put into the public domain infor- House, says “he had watched Manning change mation about the way in which the State oper- Lamo: what's your endgame plan, then?... from an intelligent young man to someone ates, should be supported and their releases who appeared catatonic and had difficulty from captivity secured. As Orwell observed in Manning: well, it was forwarded to [Wikileaks] conducting a conversation”[8]. Amnesty Inter- - and god knows what happens now - hope- his prophetic national, a US Congressman and the UN Spe- Continued on page 32 Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 34 France topples Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire By Mark Brown

The toppling of Laurent Gbagbo in the Cote ing of immigrant labourers who came to Ivory d'Ivoire by France and the UN is no part of Coast from neighbouring Burkina Faso in the ‘Democratising Africa’ but further proof of the 1960s and 1970s. emergence of inter-Imperialist rivalries as Clashes between Ouattara’s northern mainly Lenin’s theory on imperialism shows the possi- Muslim forces and Gbagbo southern mainly bility of WWIII emerging from the structural Christian loyalists from the south of the country crisis of imperialism revealed by the 2008 finan- intensified after the breakdown in talks between cial crisis. both parties mediated by France. In the UN, The ‘United Front’ of the US, Britain and France France and Nigeria drafted UN resolution 1975, are in a grab for Africa by a coalition consoli- which was adopted unanimously on March 30th, dated over Libya. They are seeking to outma- giving UNOCI a mandate to protect civilians. It noeuvre their Germany and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, was drawn up on the same lines as the resolu- India and China) rivals, who abstained in the UN tion that allowed NATO jets to attack military vote over Libya. The ’United Front’ seeks to Libyan military positions. ratchet up the exploitation of the semi-colonial world to compensate for the industrial domi- Within days of the Ivory Coast resolution being nance of Germany and China. agreed, France and UNOCI went into action in Starting the new Grab for Africa: Youth burn- Abidjan. French helicopters bombarded forces ing rubbish with rotting corpses in Abidjan, Ivory Coast following the ousting of Gbagbo. ote d'Ivoire’s long-standing military loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo and were seen attacking the palace and presidential resi- standoff between forces loyal to rival was hit. Paris responded by destroying the entire dence on the evening of the very same day talks presidential candidates Allassane Ouat- Ivorian air force. [3] broke down (5th April 2011), justifying their ac- tara and Laurent Gbagbo came to an France’s impetus to intervene in Cote d'Ivoire Cend on 11 April 2011 when forces loyal to Allas- tion by claiming that pro-Gbagbo forces had and oust Gbagbo was in part given the green sane Ouattara with the help of French troops used heavy artillery against civilians whilst deny- ing they were involved in the fighting. [1] light after the AU panel as part of the Peace and and French air power successfully overpowered Security Council at the Assembly of the Heads of the thousand plus men defending Gbagbo, to The French government actions have been con- State and Government submitted its report on sistent with its stated role to act to protect the arrest Ivory Coast’s ex-President. 10 March 2011, re-affirming the support for It meant the end of a four month standoff after population from harm (as with western nation’s Ouattara and asking the Constitutional Court to stated aim to intervene in Libya), although the the disputed November 28th presidential elec- swear in Ouattara as President. UN resolution did not authorize the French to tion between the presidential rivals. France and However, like in Libya, imperialism intervened the NATO powers recognised Ouattara as the attack. More broadly, it has been a cover for a broader explosion of French militarism in Africa. because of the country’s economic importance winner of the election, after Ivory Coast’s Elec- and strategic location. France intervened, with toral Commission declared Ouattara the winner, France under President Nicolas Sarkozy, who also led the way in calling for a no-fly zone in the US stamp of approval, to “take care of its despite the fact that the Constitutional Court post-colonial protectorate under the umbrella of subsequently ruled that there were voting ir- Libya as part of a US-France-UK alliance, was the first country to recognise the Transitional Na- global imperialism”. Cote d'Ivoire is the largest regularities, claiming that Gbagbo had won the tional Council based in Benghazi as the rightful economy in the West African Economic and election. government of Libya (though allegations in rela- Monetary Union, constituting 40 percent of the It remains to be seen whose forces have been tion to who has funded the TNC point in the monetary union’s total GDP. The country is the responsible for the worst violence, but evidence direction of the Saudis, the CIA and French intel- world's largest exporter of cocoa, and the fourth shows the most substantial massacres of civil- ligence). Similarly, France’s role in Ivory Coast largest exporter of goods in sub-Saharan Africa ians have been carried out by supporters of has Washington’s support. President Obama (following South Africa, Nigeria and Angola). Ouattara - including one of up to 1,000 people in welcomed the intervention of France and UN: Agricultural exports and the maintenance of a single village. close ties to France since independence in 1960 “To end this violence and prevent more blood- After Gbagbo refused to stand down, a stand-off and foreign direct investment, have been the shed, former President Gbagbo must stand down main factors in the economic growth of Côte ensued with both dependant on militia forces in immediately, and direct those who are fighting their respective ethnic constituencies. Neither of d'Ivoire. In recent years Côte d'Ivoire has been on his behalf to lay down their arms”, Obama subject to greater competition and falling prices the two sides were capable of mobilising the said. “I strongly support the role that United in the global marketplace for its primary agricul- support of the whole population. Ouattara was Nations peacekeepers are playing as they en- tural crops, namely coffee and cocoa. supported and protected by armed rebels of force their mandate to protect civilians, and I northern origin, together with supposed UN welcome the efforts of French forces who are However, perhaps most significantly, Ivory Coast peacekeepers, whilst the incumbent Gbagbo, supporting that mission”. [2] also occupies an important strategic position as who was supported in the southern part of the a major portal for the extraction of resources Gbagbo had been previously recognised by country and had the national armed forces and from landlocked countries, Burkina Faso, Niger France because he had close connections with state media on his side. etc. then-Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and France’s Gbagbo excluded Ouattara from the 2000 presi- Socialist Party at the time of the 2000 election, Endnotes: dential elections, claiming that Ouattara was not even though Gbagbo excluded Ouattara from a native Ivorian because Ouattara’s parents were 1). Talbot, Ann: “France intervenes in Ivory standing. Gbagbo’s relations with France dete- Coast’s civil war”, in WSWS, 7 April 2011 from Burkina Faso and not Ivory Coast. This riorated when he rejected France’s promotion of Ivorian nationalism was a major part of Gbagbo’s a power-sharing regime that would include http://wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/ivor- 11 year grip on power in the country through his northerners to end the civil war. Gbagbo broke a a07.shtml exploitation of ethnic and communal hostilities cease-fire in 2004 when he launched a military 2). Op cit 1). within a declining economy with the scapegoat- assault on the north, during which a French base 3). Op cit 1).

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 35 The COMMUNIST LEAGUE is born to build a revolutionary Trotskyist party that belongs to the working class!

Socialist Fight is pleased to reprint an abridged munist ideological reaction of post- version of the split statement of the Communist Soviet Union and especially to the League of Brazil from the LBI - Liga Bolchevique pressure of the popular front in Brazil. Internacionalista (Internationalist Bolshevik League). Not to be confused with the Interna- SEVERAL STEPS BACK tional Bolshevik Tendency, see box at the end. FROM PROSTRATION TO As you can see from the cover of the current SCEPTICISM Magazine here the comrades have an identical The recognition of the historical task position to us on the question of Libya, not only of the working class as the protago- opposing the imperialist bombing but correctly nist of socialist revolution is part of characterising the rebels as agents of the CIA the LBI’s programmatic points. It is and placing no confidence in Gaddafi to lead mentioned in many of the conclud- Spain's Prime Minister Zapatero and Brazil's former Presi- the struggle. And the statement emphasises ing parts in their articles. dent Lula; no political support for Lula’s popular front in 1994 they have rejected the scepticism of abandon- However, it has become just words ing the working class as the revolutionary sub- as the group itself became convinced after three toiling masses to tear themselves free from the global imperialist offensives (capitalist restora- ject of history, a vital perspective for all Marx- bloody capitalist chaos, and the conservative, tion in the worker’s states, the post 9/11 war on patriotic, utterly bourgeois character of the ists, which Socialist Fight has made the number terror and the economic crisis of 2008) that not outlived labor leadership. We must choose one one in our Where we Stand platform. only the revolution was no longer a task for our of these two irreconcilable conceptions.” (The “It is ridiculous to plead different circumstances lives, but that the struggle for the construction proletariat and its Leadership, The USSR in War, and a change of periods: the building of a fight- of the working class Bolshevik party was no Leon Trotsky, September 25, 1939). ing organization and the conduct of political longer a valid effective practice. At a meeting on agitation are essential under any “drab, peace- September 8, 2010, the great majority of LBI’s FOR A PROLETARIAN VANGUARD ful” circumstances, in any period, no matter how direction made a catastrophic evaluation by OF THE IV INTERNATIONAL marked by a “declining revolutionary spirit”; stating that, "Faced with the current class ideo- Today’s extreme need of a true proletarian po- moreover, it is precisely in such periods and logical setback, it is impossible for a revolution- litical organization that is the willing to establish under such circumstances that work of this kind ary core to insert itself into the proletariat." This a Bolshevik militancy armed with a Trotskyist is particularly necessary, since it is too late to statement is nothing more than the formula to program is an enormous advantage to our group form the organization in times of explosion and prostration, as characterized during the meeting in making our task successful. Our job now is to outbursts; the party must be in a state of readi- itself. To conclude, the organization spent a build a revolutionary workers' opposition to ness to launch activity at a moment’s notice.” decade and a half arguing for the foxes not eat Lula’s government and the bourgeois govern- the chickens, refusing to work and teach the (Lenin: Where to Begin?, 1900) ment that will replace him. chickens the abilities of the eagles. We present the workers, the youth movement When in the hands of those bastards who were If we grant as true that the cause of the defeats and the vanguard of the worker’s movement LBI’s well asserted target of criticism, this docu- is rooted in the social qualities of the proletariat with all of the reasons for our break with the ment might cause some perverse moral satisfac- itself then the position of modern society will Liga Bolchevique Internacionalista (LBI). tion to them. We advise these gentlemen to have to be acknowledged as hopeless. Under enjoy this brief moment. From now on, they can WHICH HERITAGE ARE WE RE- conditions of decaying capitalism the proletariat no longer take advantage from the fact that the NOUNCING? grows neither numerically nor culturally. There Trotskyist organization that criticizes them is are no grounds, therefore, for expecting that it he small universe of the petty bourgeois isolated from the working class vanguard’s task will sometime rise to the level of the revolution- forces. We are very confident that once aware of opposition became more fetid in the ary tasks. Altogether differently does the case 2010 elections, being crushed by the its historical interests, the proletariat task forces present itself to him who has clarified in his will march upon the politics of class collabora- Popular Front pressure and the bour- mind the profound antagonism between the Tgeois opposition, recycled around the PT-PSDB tion towards the worker’s takeover aiming the organic, deep going, insurmountable urge of the symbiosis that was the candidacy of Marina. construction of a socialist future for humanity. Electing the left wing of the petty bourgeois Humberto Rodrigues, Founder and former mem- opposition as the center of its political interven- LBI - Liga Bolchevique Internacionalista ber of the LBI’s Central Committee, a member of (Internationalist Bolshevik League) is a Brazilian tion, the LBI limited itself to perform a com- the Newspaper and Magazine Workers' Struggle Trotskyist organization born in 1995. It was pletely inoffensive warning regarding the pseudo Revolutionary Marxism editorial board. originated from a split with PCO (Partido da -Trotskyism that exits in this political environ- Causa Operaria), the party that then repre- Nadia Silva, Former militant of LBI and TRS; ment. sented the international organization of Partido Luiza Freitas, Former militant of LBI and TRS; Also neglecting the patient work of forming Obrero Argentino, led by Jorge Altamira in Bra- Pilar Oliveira, Former militant of LBI and the TRS recruits from outside the circle of the very de- zil. The LBI split with the PCO because it dis- formed petty bourgeoisie and the aristocracy of agreed with the political support that PCO gave October 2010 Brazil, the LBI has set itself to a dead end. Pas- to Lula’s popular front in 1994. Another reason http://lcligacomunista.blogspot.com sive victim of unfavorable increasingly conjunc- for the split was that the LBI differed with the [email protected] tures to the classes struggle, the LBI arrives in PCO in characterising the restoration of capital- the mid of 2010 prostrated front to the anticom- ism in the USSR and in Eastern Europe in 1989- Caixa Postal 09 - cep 01031-970 São Paulo - SP - 1991 as historical defeats for the working class. Brasil

Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Socialist Fight Page 36 Statement on Libya by the Liga Comunista of Brazil, the Revolutionary

Marxist Group of South Africa and Socialist Fight of Britain 21 April 2011 Declaration to the workers of the world In Syria U.S. Imperialism and its Zionist enclave strive to create the same sce- and their internationalist vanguard nario of civil war to justify another For the unconditional defence of Libya against military intervention. In Libya, Imperial- Imperialism! ism made a qualitative leap in its inter- For a Military United Front with Gaddafi to de- vention. Not only by what it did after feat NATO and the CIA armed "rebels"! starting the "rebellion", but they had No confidence in the government of Tripoli; only also prepared beforehand. A "revolt" in by arming all the people and by the permanent Libya is not any kind of revolution, but a revolution can we win the struggle! counterrevolution, directed by Imperial- he global economic crisis has increased ism and supported and sponsored by the appetites of Imperialism to appropri- the CIA. It is the continuation of a series ate the planet's riches by super exploiting of attempts to restore the monarchy O Bolchevique No 4 of the Liga Comunista and the QM of the working class and recolonisation. and tribal privileges in favour of U.S. the Comrades for a Workers Government, Dec/Jan 1993. TCapitalist governments of the world have moved and European Union, which began RMG of SA report: “Currently our comrades are prepar- enormous sums of money from state coffers to shortly after Gaddafi took power in ing the re-launch of our publication, Qina Msebenzi (QM), large private capitalist financial intuitions in the 1969 and continued sporadically since preparing for the local government elections and the name of saving capitalism’s crisis cause by specu- then. Not coincidentally, the flag of the development of the RMG Youth organisation” lation. Now the bourgeois governments are seek- "rebels" is the flag of the monarchy RMG Website: http://thebolshevik.jimdo.com/ ing to recapitalise their coffers. For this, they force imposed by Imperialism, the flag of the the working class to pay the price of this financial puppet King Idris (1951-1969). law and save innocents from slaughter”. Using orgy. This payment is made through fiscal adjust- Rebel leaders in Libya were CIA agents from the Gaddafi’s foolish threat of "no mercy, and no pity” ments, the attacks on wages, and victories over beginning, as were the anti-Chavez coup leaders he sanctioned the bombing which will result in far unionised labor and the attack on social security, in Venezuela in 2002. Imperialism, headed by the more deaths than Gaddafi could have caused, but, etc. It has also increased the cost of living for the U.S. and France, seek to balkanised Libya, as it did as an ‘unintended consequence’ will put the oil masses, and increased inter-Imperial competition in Yugoslavia or to dominate it together, as in resources of Libya in the hands of western Imperi- in the semi-colonies. Afghanistan and Iraq. We have also have seen this alism to invest in the markets of Wall street and In Europe, from Greece to Ireland, popular resis- in Bolivia, where Evo Morales surrendered a larger the City of London and divert it from schools, tance was restrained by pro-Imperialist party share of the revenues from gas exploration to the hospitals and welfare payments in Libya and in- leaders and trade unions. In Wisconsin in the USA pro-Imperialist coup makers in the east of the vestments in other African countries. workers leaders linked to the Democratic Party country. Jim Murphy MP, Labour's Shadow Defence Secre- did the same. In Latin America, so far, but not for Those who hold the naïve notion that what hap- tary gave the cue that the rest of the soft-left in long, the governments of the "centre left" are pens in Libya is a revolution of "masses" and a Britain and internationally have followed, delaying and dampening social conflict by the continuation of the riots in Tunisia and Egypt, they “Inaction would have undermined the cause of control they exert over mass organiza- forget that the masses have been duped by the freedom not just for the hundreds of thousands of tions. Obama ordered the start of the bombing on fall of the Berlin Wall, the Velvet Revolution people who have risen up against Gaddafi in Libya, Libya when he was with the pro-imperialist Presi- (Czechoslovakia), the Orange Revolution (Ukraine) but in other countries where people are also fight- dent Dilma Vana Rousseff, in Brazil. and all other ‘revolutions’ made in the CIA. They ing for change.” In Africa the liberal bourgeois opposition to dicta- were all, in fact, counter-revolutions, sponsored And just so as we are left in doubt about the La- torships in Tunisia and Egypt made democratic by Imperialism. bour party’s position on Imperialism’s murderers transition arrangements to install new puppet Since the new escalation of Israeli attacks against Murphy writes; “our thoughts should be with all governments to stabilise the country and keep it Palestinians 20 Palestinians have been killed and British Forces around the world, including the sympathetic to the U.S. and Israel. We do not 50 wounded in the worst Israeli offensive in Gaza more than 10,000 Britons in Afghanistan. Those consider these processes as "Arab revolution" or for two years. It is the bloodiest attack since the undertaking courageous acts in the sky above "democratic revolutions." These popular uprising 2008 military operation that killed 1,400 Palestini- Libya and in the Mediterranean should be given all are genuine expressions of the outrage at price ans. We are for the destruction of the Zionist state the support they need because their bravery is increases and increased oppression caused by the of Israel and for a multi-ethnic workers’ and peas- what enables the UN resolution to be enforced imperialist crisis which began in 2008 but Imperi- ants’ government a based on workers’ and peas- and the Libyan people to be protected”. There is, alism seek to divert these potential revolutionary ants’ councils. naturally, no concern about the civilians and fight- situations enhance and extend its dominance in For 21 years Hosni Mubarak’s National Democ- ers blown to pieces ‘to save lives’ in Iraq, Afghani- Africa and the Middle East. ratic Party (NDP) in Egypt was a member of the stan or now Libya only concern and praise for the If Imperialism cannot take ownership peacefully Socialist (Second) International (SI) alongside the killers. as in the fraudulent referendum that divided the New Zealand Labour Party, the Australian Labor The greatest proof that the "rebels" are nothing Sudan, then the UN will come to occupy the coun- Party and the British Labour Party. The SI only but butchers and Libyan agents of Imperialism is try by military force and impose their fraudulent expelled the NDP in January 2011, after the mass that they have invoked NATO bombing on their elections as happened in Ivory Coast. All this, with demonstrations emerged that brought down own people, as did the collaborators at all times of the support of the African Union and the ANC Mubarak, but not the NDP. But true to its long the class struggle since the Paris Commune Thiers government in South Africa. history of defending British Imperialism British (1871) to Lebanon (2006). As each day passes it In Libya, Syria and Iran, Imperialism seeks to ac- Labour leader Ed Miliband gave unequivocal sup- becomes clearer that the native agents of Imperi- complish coups camouflaged as "democratic", by port to the Benghazi rebels and to the bombing of alism are merely open cat’s paws for multinational taking advantage of the "popular uprising" in Libya on the totally hypocritical basis that, “as intervention in the country. They are racists and neighbouring countries. In Iran, the U.S. and Israel internationalists we have both the responsibility xenophobes, the enemies of all black working class Saharans in seek to revive the reactionary "green revolution". and the opportunity to help enforce international Continued on page 14 Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward!